The Hero and The Goddess
by Phantom Tigress
Summary: For the past few weeks, Izuku Midoriya had been hearing someone in his head; a pretty voice named Eveline Liones. While hearing her can have its downsides, he wouldn't tell her to stop. However, he didn't think that having her in his head was going to drag him into another world's war. The battles will be deadly but he's willing to put himself on the line to help his new friends.
1. Chapter 1

**_Chapter 1: The Voice In My Head_**

* * *

_**Hmm~Ah~**_

There it was again. That song that continuously sang within his head.

_**Hmm~Ahhh~Ah~Hmm**_

Midoriya looked down at the exam, trying to make sense of the English while simultaneously ignoring the song in his head. He managed to get through most of the exam and should have finished by now, but the humming was distracting him. Luckily, with some patience, he managed to finish it and, with Present Mic's permission, he was able to get to Recovery Girl and suffer in peace.

"Still hearing that ringing?" she asked as he came into the infirmary with one hand covering his left ear. "This is becoming a problem Midoriya."

He only nodded as he seated himself on the edge of one of the beds, "I understand, but I don't want to be pulled out of the show over this."

Recovery Girl sighed and hopped off her chair to approach the young man. "If this persists, you'll need to see a specialist. In fact, I should send you right away."

"But-!"

"Midoriya, it's getting worse." she argued, "What are you going to do during that show? What if it makes it worse?"

"It won't! I-I'll find a way. Besides, you said there was nothing wrong with me…"

"Not that I could see, but consider what a specialist might see." She took his hand and tried to persuade him to see a doctor, but he was adamant that he was fine until she threatened to tell Aizawa how serious the problem was becoming.

The thought of what his teacher might do was enough for him to finally give in, under the condition that Aizawa didn't find out unless it was absolutely necessary.

"You know I wouldn't lie to him." She said sternly and with a huff.

Midoriya panicked and assured her that he didn't mean it like that. "I'm not asking you to lie, just not to bring it up."

Though she saw more trouble in not telling Aizawa, she agreed to not bring it up to the teacher, especially since the ringing wasn't doing any real harm to the boy. Distracting as it was, he never let it affect his schoolwork or training so there was no harm found. However, she made note of it on Midoriya's records to prove that she wasn't slacking at her job, and if Aizawa bothered to look, he would know and confront Midoriya about it if he felt like it.

"I understand," he told her after he watched her type in the diagnosis on her computer. "But really, you said there was nothing you could see."

"I'm only a school doctor, and I'm old. I could have missed something, which is why I'm pushing a request for this to the principal directly. It's nothing serious now, but it could be later." She then reached into her pocket and pulled out a small packet of Ibuprofen for him. "Here, in case it gives you a headache. Past this, I can't help you."

Midoriya took the packet and quickly left to join his friends for lunch. A part of him hated that he had lied to Recovery Girl. There was a lot that he couldn't share with the older woman because he knew that he might end up quarantined or under special supervision.

Telling her that it was a simple ringing made sense at first when the singing accidentally lulled him to sleep during class. He told her that he had a ringing in his ear that kept him up at night and she took him at his word, allowing him to rest until lunch when he said that it went away. After that, he took great pains to ensure that the singing didn't affect him in any noticeable way. For the most part, he was successful, with only minor exceptions like today; as much it frustrated him, he could see how all the little slip-ups were adding up to Recovery Girl.

_I guess I shouldn't be upset, I just wished that they wouldn't be so...focused on me right now._ The more he thought of it, the more he grew agitated with himself for not being open to his teachers about his current condition. Still, if he did tell them, they might blame Eri for it and he knew that she had nothing to do with it. There was no way her quirk could have done this because it showed up a few days after the fight with Overhaul and he already knew what was causing it. More accurately, who was causing it.

About a day after the singing appeared, he had asked it a rhetorical question out of frustration when it was keeping him from studying. He said something along the lines of could you please stop! and to his surprise, a voice responded back. It was quite terrifying and it took him a moment to collect himself, but eventually, he managed to not shit his pants. Since then, he regularly conversed with the voice, who called herself Eveline Liones.

At first, it was kind of challenging as she spoke English and he spoke Japanese, but they managed to find a perfect compromise. Eveline taught him English and helped him with his homework so that they could talk to each other.

The two of them didn't talk about much related to herself, the only thing she ever shared about herself was that she was alone and didn't have anyone to talk to. So, to fill their conversations, he told her all about his world and what he did with his time. He thought that she might not have been interested in his world, but she assured that she was and, after some explanations about his school, she realized why he had been upset with her originally.

**_I was keeping you from learning?_** She asked softly, almost in a whisper which worried him.

Had he hurt her feelings? He really hoped that he didn't!

_W-Well, it's distracting because your singing is so soothing._

**_I see I'm sorry._** She went quiet for a minute before explaining that because she had no one to talk to, she sang to herself to keep the sadness away. That was why he never asked her to stop and chose to bear through her singing, though he did manage to get her to reduce the amount of singing by keeping her company. In a way. Plus, she did try to avoid singing so much when he'd tell her that he was in class but sometimes the loneliness was too much.

"Deku!" Midoriya turned around and saw Uraraka running toward him through the barely filled hallways. "Wait up!"

Midoriya did wait for her, though he couldn't understand why she was wandering the halls at this time. "Uraraka? Shouldn't you already be in the cafeteria?"

When the brunette finally caught up with him, she smiled and explained that she had been getting fitted for her concert outfit. It was slightly too loose for her so it was being fixed. "They look super cool! What about you? Have you eaten yet?"

He shook his head, "No, but I'm heading to the cafeteria now. Wanna join me?"

With an excited nod, the two of them went their merry way while discussing the concert and what they wanted to do afterward. He figured that he would spend most of the event with Eri and Mirio while she planned to hang out with Asui.

"We'll do great! I just know it!" She grinned as they entered the crowded cafeteria, "Well, I'll see you during rehearsals tonight."

"Yeah!" The two parted ways as he went to get his lunch, silently calling out to Eveline.

_**Did I bother you again?** _The question sounded odd to him but he figured it was guilt that laced her tone.

_No, but I almost fell asleep during that test toward the end. But don't worry, it's nothing serious._ He then paused to focus on greeting Tenya and Todoroki as he sat down beside them. _Tomorrow is that show I told you about, I can't wait._

_**Will you be okay? I can stop-**_

_Don't!_ He cringed and Tenya was concerned, asking if maybe he was cold or something but Midoriya simply said that he accidentally clipped his elbow on the table. _S-Sorry about that, what I meant to say was that I'll tell you when we're on and when we're done so you can still sing later._

Eveline made a noise of agreement before softly asking if he could tell her about the festivities that happen at these kinds of events. However, Tenya was vying for his attention as well and Midoriya had to apologize and promised to tell her later.

That later came while he was in his room after the final rehearsal and he was sharing Eveline his plan to make candy apples for Eri. She was quite supportive of his plan, though she didn't understand when he might have time to make the treat.

_I'll find the time, I'm sure._

**_If you say so. I hope it goes well, I wish I could see it._**

_Does it sound fun to you?_

**_Extremely. I used to love the festivals that my grandfather had in his kingdom. I haven't been to one in so long, I miss it._**

Midoriya felt his excitement falter slightly; he wished that there was a way for him to share the experience with her, but how? The fact she was a voice in his head was a total accident that neither of them could explain.

_I-I'll do my best to describe everything to you after the show!_

**_Huh? Really?_**

_It won't be that hard, just bear with me, okay? I'm not really a descriptive person._

**_I find that hard to believe, I've heard your thoughts a few times and you take a lot of information in. I know more about your studying habits than you've ever told me._**

Midoriya chuckled awkwardly to himself, he should have guessed that she could hear some of his thoughts as if they were his typical mutterings. He wondered though, how much she heard of his thoughts and if he had ever shut her out of his head. Could she hear everything he thought or were there times she wasn't listening? She had said she heard them a few times, implying that she wasn't hearing everything.

**_Usually, I'm only hearing what you want me to hear, like our conversations. She said with a timid giggle, But there are moments where you get so lost in your thoughts that I can hear them without you realizing it. You talk an awful lot about the festival and training. That little girl Eri comes up every so often._**

_Is that...all I've said?_ He really hoped that she only heard those thoughts because he knew that other thoughts crept into his head when he was with All Might.

_**Pretty much.**_

With a sigh of relief, he apologized for annoying her, but she surprised him by saying that she liked hearing him think.

**_You think some interesting things, so it keeps me entertained._**

_I-I guess that's a good thing._ He made a private mental note to try to better guard his thoughts so that she never will hear his more personal thoughts. Either way, I should get to bed._ I gotta get up early. Training and shopping…_

_**Okay, I wish you luck!**_

The next morning came sooner than he would have liked; he was having a really nice dream about Eveline and he thought that he finally got to see what she looked like until his alarm rang and all memory of the dream left him. It was a shame, he wanted to ask Eveline what she looked like but he wasn't sure if that was too personal of a question so he could only imagine what she looked like.

"You have some shopping to do for the show?" All Might asked as Midoriya handed him the permission slip he had already prepared. "Cutting it close, don't you think?"

Midoriya shrugged, "It can't be helped, the rope frayed last night during our rehearsal. I got to replace it or Aoyama can't be the disco ball."

All Might nodded and signed the slip, "Alright, but be quick."

"I will!" Midoriya grinned as he headed off campus toward one of the closest convenience stores. As he hurried on, he called out to Eveline, asking if she was awake.

**_Yes, are you shopping?_**

_Yeah, could you help me? I need sugar, caramel, red food coloring, corn syrup, apples, and wooden sticks._

**_And rope?_**

_Yup!_

Eveline giggled and promised that she would remember his shopping list. During his trip, she asked questions about the stores which he described to her. She helped him remember everything but the store didn't have red food coloring as he had hoped.

_**Didn't you tell me about a friend who bakes? Maybe he has some coloring you can use.**_

_Great idea! Then I have everything. I'm going to pay and then I can go back. I can't wait!_

Midoriya quickly paid for his things and hurried back to the school. As he did so, Eveline questioned how much time he had.

I'm early, so this shouldn't mess with anything! Unfortunately, he spoke too soon as he quickly was forced to halt suddenly when a tall man called out at him for nearly running into the gentleman.

"Watch yourself, young man!"

_Damn it! I was trying to avoid unnecessary interactions!_

**_What happened?_**

"Pardon me!" he huffed, choosing to ignore Eveline for a second so that he didn't accidentally miss anything that the gentleman might say back. Luckily, the man seemed content with his response and began to leave with his companion who he called Honey. As he left, he mentioned something about enjoying the after taste of Golden Tips Imperial.

_I got stopped for a second by some strangers._

**_That's nothing to be concerned about, you should have plenty of time._**

_Yeah..._

Midoriya would have thought nothing of the couple, but the mentions of that specific tea caught his attention. Yaoyorozu had made that tea the other day and hadn't she said something about it being a rare and high-class tea?

_**Something's troubling you, Izuku. What is it?**_

Again, he ignored her for a moment as he turned his head to see where the couple had come from, finding an old, small house that looked like it was in need of repairs. He had seen that house before, having passed it to go to the store plenty of times since moving to the dorms. However, he wasn't aware that anyone owned the property. If they came from there and that man had tea recently...

"I guess that old house is a café or something, never knew." Like most of his mutters, Midoriya hadn't meant to say that aloud but he did and now he had that man's attention.

"One would have to know of Golden Tips Imperial to reach such a conclusion!" The man said in a joyous voice, loud and full of charismatic character. "So young and yet so worldly! Impressive, my boy!"

Midoriya felt his body tense up; that man's voice sounded familiar. Too familiar. Eveline felt the tension and tried to call out to him, but was met with silence once again. "Uh, not really. I only know about it 'cuz my friend made some…"

The man seemed slightly disheartened but also seemed to realize something and quickly turned to leave. The woman he was with also seemed eager to leave Midoriya, pulling her partner away. But Midoriya wasn't about to let him leave; he remembered that voice and now understood the cryptic message that was in that video he had seen a while ago.

"Hold on," Midoriya carefully set down his shopping bag, trying to his best to not lose his cool. "Is this your big job?"

The man tried to feign ignorance but Midoriya wasn't buying it, he wasn't about to let everyone's efforts be wasted and he wasn't going to let Eri down. If the security alarms go off, or if Hound Dog thought it was necessary, the festival would be shut down without hesitation and he couldn't let that happen. Not when he could stop it.

"Stay away from my school!"

Eveline must have felt the rage boil through his thoughts and tried to call out to him, but her voice wasn't registered by him. He wasn't about to let this happen at all.

The gentleman dropped his act, and within moments, Midoriya and Gentle Criminal were in a brawl with Midoriya trying to reason with the internet star. Gentle's partner, a tiny woman called La Brava, stayed out of the fight but kept her camera on hand and on them.

"Please!" Midoriya pleaded, "Don't do this to us, leave UA alone!"

The two fought in the street for a moment before moving to a nearby construction site where they clashed among steel beams and construction equipment. This whole time he begged Gentle to cease his job, to consider what effort everyone put in for today. Gentle Criminal wasn't deterred by the plea and merely insisted that Midoriya turn a blind eye to his plan. He even went as far as to promise that Class 1A's concert wouldn't be canceled but that wasn't the point. Everyone at UA worked so hard for today and he'd be damned if he let anyone ruin that.

Suddenly, Midoriya felt a strange sensation wash over him, though he pushed it back as he was too focused on stopping Gentle from ruining the event. However, the sensation was persistent and then it changed; into what, he didn't know until he heard Eveline's voice.

**_Izuku! I can see you!_**

_What-!_ Midoriya looked around and saw a transparent image of a lovely blonde woman floating beside him. Her face was much clearer than the rest of her; he could make out her waist and up, but below that wasn't showing. She was smiling at him and reached out to touch him. "Y-You…!"

He had a feeling she was lovely, though he didn't think she'd outrank Yaoyorozu in looks. He didn't give her a good enough look to really make out anything past her blonde hair and sparkling green eyes. Still, he was amazed by the fact she managed to appear before him.

"What's that?" Midoriya looked away from Eveline and saw that La Brava and Gentle were gazing upon Eveline with the same wonder and admiration he had given his friend. "Where did she come from!?"

"Indeed! Where did this fine lady come from?"

_Wait, they can see you too?_

**_I guess so!_ **Eveline spoke from within her mind, frowning as she took in the two minor villains. _**I'll help you! Just close enough to them for me. I don't think I can stray too far from you!**_

"Right!" Midoriya charged toward Criminal again and tried to land a blow, but barely missed the internet star by inches. "I guess this match is even now!"

"Foolish thought!" Gentle laughed, "I told you that I detest violence and I will succeed in my goals."

"_**No,**_" Eveline called to Gentle, her voice echoing through the air. It caught Midoriya by surprise a bit, allowing Gentle to return the teenager's blow with a defensive attack. "_**You mustn't ruin their day! It means everything to everyone at that school!**_"

"She speaks!" Gentle cried, equally amazed by her. "And quite nobly too! But I'm afraid that I must disappoint you."

Midoriya hadn't a moment to react before a piece of the construction site fell on top of him, though he was to catch it. Unfortunately, Gentle had used his quirk on the girder and each time he moved just the slightest bit, the girder would wiggle uncontrollably.

Ah! Eveline's spirit joined Midoriya's side, trying her hardest to help stop the wiggling.

"I am sorry that it came to this, but I need you to stay put for a while." Gentle followed after La Brava, stopping at a crane which he macgyvered into a sort of catapult. "Hold on, La Brava."

The two criminals shot themselves toward UA, while Eveline and Midoriya were stuck in that one spot.

"No…" This couldn't happen, he couldn't let this happen. "Eveline..!"

"**_I can fix this, hold on!_**" Eveline moved back and held out her arm; with a flick of her wrist, she called out, "_**Absolute Cancel!**_"

Looking up at the girder, he realized that it wasn't wiggling anymore. It was solid! He tossed it aside, thanking Eveline for her help, and hurried to the crane, using it to fling himself toward Gentle and La Brava.

_**Be careful, Izuku!** _Her voice pulsed through his head, unlike how he typically heard her.**_ I can feel his heart and he's close to throwing his principles out the window just to beat you._**

"Is that good or bad?!" he asked through gritted teeth; for a moment, he hadn't considered what might have been driving Gentle and La Brava to do this, and for good reason. All Midoriya wanted was for his friends and Eri to have a good time today.

**_Bad! If he gets too angry, I might not be able to reach his heart and reach him._** Her voice, despite what was on the line, was warm, kind, and understanding. He had picked up on her caring personality through their conversations, but he couldn't understand how she was able to maintain that in such a stressful moment for him. **_Please, I know you're mad too, but be reasonable. You still have a show to perform!_**

Midoriya could only nod in response as he reached the duo, smashing his fist into the ground next to them, sending them flying into one of Gentle's distorted pockets. It was through this that Midoriya thought he had gained an upper hand, but La Brava had quickly proved him wrong. With her confession of love, Gentle gained the strength to fight back.

Gentle overpowered him for a brief moment, insisting that love would win in the end. However, Eveline didn't take that counterattack very well and extended her arms toward Gentle and held him in a sort of bubble of light.

"Please! Sir, you can't do this! These students worked so hard and if they cannot go through with this event, they'll be devastated! Stop thinking about yourself!"

"Gah! What is this?" Gentle groaned, clearly struggling against the light. "I'm feeling strange, this won't do at all!"

Gentle used his quirk again, breaking free of the light and, in doing so, sent Eveline back slightly. However, she wasn't deterred; at that moment when she had him trapped, she saw Gentle's past, his failure to become a hero, his family's disownment of him, how he lived in poverty until he couldn't take it anymore. This was a broken man, a man who just wanted something when he had nothing. All of what she saw was shared with Midoriya.

_**Izuku**_, she called out in a low mental voice, **_we can help him but we need to work together. I might be able to reach him, but you have to as well. Understand?_**

"Gentle…" La Brava cried to her partner, desperate to make him surrender so that they could retreat to safety. Midoriya wasn't expecting to be overwhelmed by La Brava's feelings but he felt them as if they were a strong gust of wind. Likewise, he felt Gentle's feelings as the gentleman cried out. The frustration, annoyance, anger, regret…There was so much regret in this man…

_Eveline, are you showing me their pain?_

_**Rule one of saving someone from themselves: understand their pain. If we're going to win, we need to see what he feels.**_

"No! No! I can't be deterred!" Gentle was clearly mad at this point, his own selfish desires were running rampant and he was unable to be reached through words as La Brava's cries failed to move him.

_**He won't listen to reason at this point!**_ Eveline cried, _**Do what you must, I have to reach him now or there might be nothing that can stop him. This is going to feel weird but don't reject it!**_

Though Midoriya hadn't a clue of what she was doing, he trusted Eveline and didn't question her.

Gentle was still stubborn, still trying his hardest to beat Midoriya and not let his plans go to waste. Midoriya felt Gentle's desperation with such a force that it could have knocked him down, but he wasn't relenting either. They would stop Gentle!

As the two fought, he felt something within his body, like something entered him. It had to have been Eveline's doing because he heard the soft observation of La Brava in which she had said that Eveline had vanished.

Then he felt something reaching out of his body like a hand was stretched out to Gentle. Then it all became clear to him. Eveline was trying to reach out from him to Gentle; she was trying to reach for his heart this way rather than through words.

"Go ahead! Laugh at me boy! Do you really think you can be a hero?!"

Eveline seemed to have received some kind of push back as he felt the figurative hand recoil for a moment before reaching out again, this time reaching Gentle and speaking to him.

Midoriya wasn't about to let Eveline do all the work though and, as she asked, he reached out to Gentle as well.

"I'm not laughing at you, Gentle!" he practically growled as he landed a powerful hit on the man.

That seemed to do it. Though Gentle still had some fight in him, it depleted quickly and with news that security was making their way to the scene, he finally surrendered.

In a sort of act of contrition, Gentle tried to send Midoriya back to UA but he and Eveline, who he couldn't see anymore, felt it was right to admit fault and explain what happened (without mentioning Eveline's involvement, of course). At least then, maybe, he could convince the two to not shut down the festival.

Luckily, the two heroes felt the threat was barely worth the effort. Police were summoned and Ectoplasm offered to get Midoriya back to the campus.

"Sensei, I left my shopping bag behind!" Midoriya cried suddenly, realizing that he was nowhere near where he had left his bag.

Ectoplasm was not as worried, "Where, I'll take you to go get it."

He panicked for a moment, trying to remember where he had come from, but Eveline's soothing voice had brought him back from a near panic attack.

**_Izuku, there was an old man near that house, he has your bag!_**

_Thanks!_

He hurried back to the house, finding the old man that Eveline told him about, and he and Ectoplasm made it back to find Aoyama waiting for him. He was surprised that the excuse of him tripping was somehow believable but he didn't dwell on that as Ectoplasm reminded him to clean up his face so no one would worry about him.

As he did so, cleaning his face of the dirt and changing into the suit that was left for him, he sent out his thanks to Eveline and didn't wait for her response as he told her that he was going to the stage right away.

Everything happened so fast; once he made it to the stage, the curtain drew back and in the audience, though it was hard to see them clearly, he saw Eri and Mirio watching and his heart swelled. The show happened in a blur but he knew it was a resounding success just by listening to the cheers of the crowd.

As the curtain closed again, signaling the end of the show, Midoriya heard Eveline call out to him with equal excitement as the audience and his classmates.

**_That was amazing Izuku!_**

Midoriya jumped a little and quickly glanced around without seeming too weird about it._ Eveline! D-Di-?_

_**I saw it! After that fight, I figured out how to see your world through you and I saw the whole show! It was awesome! That little girl was there, right?**_

_She was! I'll see her soon, but now we gotta clean up._ Before Midoriya could start helping the others, he was halted by All Might, who looked unamused and even annoyed with Midoriya. _Uh oh…_

"Oooh someone's in trouble~!" Some of his classmates teased as they gathered chunks of ice off the floor.

Midoriya could only lower his head and take the scolding in hopes that it might lessen any punishment that All Might had in mind. Luckily, Hound Dog and Ectoplasm made their way to the mentor and student, with Hound Dog taking over scolding.

"It's our duty to protect you kids!" He growled as he lifted Midoriya up by the collar of his shirt before promptly throwing him toward his classmates, "The festival's still going on! Now go have fun!"

When the young man landed, he was greeted by Sero who teasingly suggested that Midoriya's new nickname would be Errand Boy, which received a minor chuckle out of the exhausted teenager. It wasn't until he saw Eri that he perked up and forced back all the pain he felt from his fight (and flight) so that he could give her a tearful smile. As she retold her experience to him, there was a great sense of accomplishment and joy that swelled within him.

The rest of the event went by in a blur for Midoriya, though it wasn't due to the lack of things to do. In fact, there was so much to do that his friends had made it their goal to go through as much as they could before the day's end. He, on the other hand, took the time to slip away and make Eri's candy apples, which Eveline had showed an interest in as well.

_I wish there was a way I could give one to you, I'll have some to spare judging from the recipe._

**Don't worry,** Eveline giggled nervously, going silent for a moment before responding again. _**They look a lot like the candy treats my grandfather would give me when I was little. Of course, they weren't put on apples, or any fruit for that matter.**_

Another moment of silence past between them and Midoriya was determined to break it, but Eveline beat him to it. She apologized for making him worry about her when he was supposed to be smiling for Eri and she told him that she had to stop talking to him for a little bit.

**_Don't worry, it's nothing bad,_ **She said quickly, though her tone told him otherwise. _**When this is over, I'll tell you all about it! I promise!**_

He was hesitant to agree, but there was nothing else he could do. I'll hold you to it.

With his acceptance, their link closed off. He wasn't sure how he knew that; since he first spoke to Eveline, he felt a slight string that connected them to each other. Now, he felt like she was gone. She wasn't gone, and he knew that but the feeling suffocated him.

_Focus on Eri!_ He told himself as he finished the apples. _Eveline will call out to me when she's ready! Don't be clingy!_

After a small mental pep talk, he finally gathered the two best candy apples and headed out to meet Mirio and Eri.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2: Visions Of A New World**_

* * *

After sending Eri off with her candy apple, Midoriya hurried back to the dorms so that he could have a moment of reflection and to note down everything that had happened today. He especially wanted to write out what he learned about Eveline as she had, perhaps unintentionally, shared more about herself than she had before.

For instance, her grandfather ruled a kingdom. At least, he assumed that much from the way she phrased it.

"I don't have any trouble imagining that she's royalty!" He muttered as he rode the elevator to the second floor. "The way she spoke was pretty eloquent and now that I've seen her, she has what I think is called aristocratic features. Plus her last name is Liones; sounds aristocratic to me."

The ding of the elevator snapped him out of his trance and he nearly ran down the hall until he saw Todoroki and Bakugo waiting beside his door. The unusual sight alone was enough to set Midoriya on edge and he reeled in his eagerness so that neither might question him on it.

"Kacchan, Todoroki?" He questioned once he was near the guarded door, "What are you doing here? It's almost like you're blocking my door."

"What else would we be doing, you damn nerd?" The fact that Bakugo was being oddly calm unnerved Midoriya a bit. "We're here to talk about why you're being so weird."

Todoroki only sighed before pushing himself out of the way so that Midoriya could reach his door. "Let's go inside, it'll be better that way."

Midoriya was positive that this couldn't be good and tried to come up with excuses as to why he couldn't talk at this moment, but neither Bakugo or Todoroki were going to let him off the hook.

"You got two choices," Bakugo growled as Todoroki put himself between the two childhood friends. "either we do this Half & Half's way or mine."

Midoriya paled at the thought of what Bakugo's method could be and relented. "O-Okay…"

With that resistance gone, the three of them entered Midoriya's bedroom; somehow, this felt worse than when the girls barged into his room the night they moved into the dorms. It wasn't because he was going to be judged, but because he didn't know what he had done to warrant this suspicion that he assumed everyone had toward him now. What if Eveline had exposed herself when she watched the show? O-Or maybe it had to do with why he was late and it had nothing to do with her! Yeah, it had to be that! There was no way—

"We noticed something around you during the concert."

There went that hope. Midoriya froze mid-step, his expression was comically horrified and the other two chose to stay close to the door.

"A-Ahh…" was all he said as Bakugo added in that, from where he sat, it looked like a person. A sort of low pitch screech escaped his throat as they continued.

"From above, it looked like a type of mist. Kirishima saw it too but he insisted that it was just the lighting."

"T-Then—"

Bakugo approached the green-haired teen and lifted him up by the collar of his shirt. "Don't you even think of lying!"

"I wasn't!"

"Stop," Todoroki ordered coldly, "you didn't even finish what you had to say, Bakugo."

Another growl came from the explosive blonde, but he let Midoriya go. "Yeah, that."

"H-Huh?" Midoriya glanced back between the two friends of his and questioned what was it that bothered Bakugo.

"I said it looked like a person," he repeated, "and I thought maybe it was the light until she turned around and I recognized her."

"Huh…? What do you—"

Bakugo sent Midoriya a harsh glare before reaching into his pocket and practically throwing an old photo at him. Midoriya, at first, was unable to grasp the photo, though when he did he couldn't believe his eyes.

The photo was from when he and Bakugo were still friends; they were wearing those pale blue kindergarten shirts and smiling without a care in the world. It wasn't anything unusual until he took in the small blonde girl in the background who was curiously poking her head into the frame.

The girl had long blonde hair (it was so fair in color that he was tempted to say her hair was white) and vibrant green eyes that weren't large or round. They were dainty almost like Yaoyorozu's narrow eyes, though they were more oval-shaped. She was dressed in a reddish jacket that covered her torso but opened out into a coattail, under that, he could make out a kind of skirt and maybe some stockings, but it was hard to tell as that was where the photo cut out.

Midoriya turned the photo over, to see if Bakugo had written anything on it. Sadly, nothing was there.

"She showed up when we were playing at the park," Bakugo explained rather curtly. "She said she had gotten lost and didn't know how to get home, she spoke in English and my dad had to translate for us according to that old hag."

Midoriya glanced up at Bakugo and then back at the photo, there were a lot of questions he had but there one in particular that he had to voice.

"How come you remember her, but I don't?"

Bakugo shrugged, "When her folks came to get her, she was with you and your mom. After that, you guys slowly stopped bringing her up and then you—we had that falling out so no one brought her up again."

Made sense, but that added more mystery to the girl. If this was Eveline, why didn't she recognize him? Everyone who had seen Midoriya's younger self and current self always said that he looked the same; still small, same face, same curly green hair, and the same four freckles. So, was she pretending?

"D-Did she ever give us a name?"

"Eveline Liones, but she told us to call her Evie." Bakugo snatched the photo back and looked at it himself. "What I saw looked like an older version of her, and with Half & Half seeing her too, I know it wasn't a trick of the light."

"It might explain why you've been spacing out even more than usual," Todoroki added, "like yesterday. It was a lie when you said you clipped your elbow on the table. You looked like you were invested in a conversation."

"A-Ah! I-I…" Midoriya struggled to find words that made a coherent sentence and eventually had to admit defeat. Falling to his knees, Midoriya hid his face behind his hands as he considered the consequences of confessing to his connection to Eveline. There wasn't any reason for him to keep hiding it, now that the festival was over, but still.

_Eveline never told me to keep our conversations to myself...She was all alone…_

"Midoriya?"

Making up his mind, Midoriya blundered out an apology before taking in a deep breath to calm himself. "I-I...I don't understand it myself, but I'll share what I know to be fact."

* * *

After discussing everything with Bakugo and Todoroki, his friends finally left him with the promise that they wouldn't tell anyone what he had shared. It was surprising that Bakugo was a bit emotional about learning that Eveline was somehow linked to Midoriya, but he never dared to ask why.

Kacchan said we only knew her for a weekend, she showed up because she had never seen a camera before. How was that possible? How could she have never seen a camera before in this day and age? _Unless...was she not from this world? Like…!_

Midoriya, who had allowed himself to lay down for a moment to collect himself, shot off his bed and to his notebooks. Quickly writing everything he had learned about her today, the small pieces Eveline had given him were now making sense as he carefully pieced them together.

Her grandfather was a king, the only surviving monarchy had a queen (and the previous ruler was a queen as well) so that was a subtle difference that pointed to alternative worlds. The other thing was that earlier in their correspondence, Eveline hadn't the slightest clue as to what a Quirk was. She had said that she hadn't had contact with anyone but family in a few years (which was odd) so he chalked it up to her being clueless (A stupid assumption for him to make, but this conversation was happening during training and he didn't have it in him to shut her down). There were more small details that he should have taken into careful consideration, but again, so much was happening around him that he couldn't give it as much thought as he normally would have.

He then thought back to the fight with Gentle; Eveline knew a lot about emotions and she told him that the first thing to do when saving a person from themselves was to understand them. For her to know that and confidently believe that she had to have experience with that sort of thing.

_Wait, I think she mentioned that sort of thing before!_ Reaching out for the notebook he had before the current one, he flipped to the final few pages until he found the noted information he was looking for.

_Eveline mentioned that she's been sad lately. Her cousin came to visit her and she felt that something was terribly wrong because her cousin was smiling, but her heart was weeping. I don't understand what that meant and when I asked her, she changed the subject. I wonder what's driving her to keep so much about herself secret._

"So that's what she meant," Midoriya leaned back in his chair and sighed, "What's going on? First, she's in my head and now, I've met her once before. There has to be a reason for this."

Glancing at his phone, he saw that it was roughly 9:30, though he felt like it was way past midnight with how tired he felt.

I got up super early to train with All Might, had the fight with Gentle, then performed, then made the apples, I'm surprised that I hadn't passed out sooner.

As much as he wanted to focus on this problem, he was physically and mentally exhausted and in desperate need of rest. He could think about it tomorrow when he has a clear head and the energy to spend on such a taxing subject.

He went to bed early, though he felt as though he hadn't slept at all as his dreams forced him to toss and turn. He saw watered-down images of landscapes and people, all of whom he had never seen before in his life. Not only were dreams keeping him from sleeping, but his body was consistently changing from hot to cold. One minute he would be freezing under his blankets, the next he was sweating like crazy. It was hell!

When he finally was able to sleep, he felt like it was probably time for his early training with All Might but he ignored his body's attempts to wake him up. He fell into a deep slumber, completely unaware of his surroundings.

"He should have woken up by now…" he heard someone mutter softly; he didn't know anyone who spoke so softly like that.

Another voice spoke, but he couldn't hear them, though the vocal tone sounded similar to Bakugo's. Then another butted in and he knew for a fact no one in 1-A talked like this person.

"The spell I used is going to keep him down for a day, that's enough time for us to get to Liones and collect Bartra and move back to Camelot before anyone notices what we're doing."

"But why waste time on that small portal only to bring him through?" He heard a squeaky voice ask, "Our goal is-"

"No, I needed to know if the portal would work and that I had the right location, which I didn't have and now I know the best one to send us to later. It will work out next time. For now, let's hurry."

Midoriya wanted to wake up, but he couldn't. In a way, he was awake because he heard the three strangers, but he was unable to move his body or make sense of his sleep-deprived mental thought. All he could do was accept the darkness until this spell wore off.

* * *

"Is he awake yet? It's been almost two days."

"No kidding, Merlin did a number on him! You taking over?"

"Yeah, Flora's having one of her crying fits because Drystan barely raised his voice at her."

"Alright, I'll go shut her up. Have fun with Sleeping Beauty there."

"Better than her. Go deal with the fairy."

The room fell silent again and this time Midoriya was able to distinguish what voice belonged to who. The person who had just left was a man by the name of Bryan and he sounded similar to Bakugo in that they both had deep voices that faded into a growl at times. The woman who took Bryan's place was named Zelda and she actually sounded almost identical to Midnight's voice, perhaps maybe just slightly a higher pitch than the art teacher.

These two were mainly the ones who watched over him, everyone else kept their distance though he heard them sometimes. Flora might have been the one he heard sometimes as she often cried but the others weren't close enough for him to hear them.

He assumed that he was in a room, though before this he knew he was in a cart as he felt the rocking that came with traversing uneven ground and heard the creaking of the wood. He heard the door whenever someone came or went, and for him to not be able to hear everyone, there had to be walls between them.

He wondered, as there was nothing else he could do, what these people were doing and why they had brought him here. What purpose could he serve to them? And earlier, he heard someone say that they planned to use a portal to go somewhere, he presumed they meant UA or Musutafu in general. That didn't make sense to him but he had feeling it would if he could open his eyes and fully wake up, which was gradually happening.

He could feel each individual limb slowly regain feeling and every so often they would twitch when he dared to try and move them. Bryan had gotten excited when he noticed Midoriya move and tried to wake him up through a one-sided conversation. Despite sounding like Bakugo, Bryan was nice and told him about things that made him wonder where in the hell he was.

First was the mention of a place called Liones and Camelot; one of those places he linked to Eveline due it being her last name but the other he knew from childhood when the daycare teachers would tell them random legends from other countries. The stories of King Arthur and his knights were popular among the girls (he never understood why) so the kids heard it often. These two places did not exist as far as he was aware so he could only wonder where they were going. He had played with the idea that he was in Eveline's world, but he told himself to not jump to conclusions yet.

Everything that could clarify his situation was waiting for him, he just needed to wake up.

"Alright, I've had enough of this," He heard Zelda's footsteps move closer to him, "Time to get up."

Midoriya felt his body twitch out of fear then he felt Zelda lean closer to him. He wasn't sure what she was doing until he felt her bite down on his shoulder with such force that he had to wake up.

"AH!"

"Oh good," Zelda gleefully smiled as she licked away the blood on her teeth, "you're awake."

Midoriya couldn't speak, only managing hoarse pants as he gripped his bleeding shoulder. Who just bites a person they don't know!? Was she like Toga Himiko?

"Here, you'll be needing these," Zelda threw something at Midoriya and turned to head to the door. "Change into these and come out when you're done. I'll let everyone know you're up."

Midoriya could only hold his shoulder and watch her leave. When she was gone, he checked his shoulder to see how bad the bite was, finding that she barely left and punctured holes in his skin. She had bitten him; there was blood on her mouth. There was definitely a lot of blood on his ruined sleep shirt. So how was there nothing on his skin?

"I'm so confused, but she gave me an order so I can do that," Midoriya said to himself as he pulled out the clothes that Zelda had thrown at him.

The clothes weren't anything that he was used to as they weren't exactly loose. The cream-colored shirt was almost fitted perfectly to his body and the green vest wasn't something he'd normally wear but he couldn't just discard it. The pants were, at least, loose and he could comfortably move in them, so that was a plus. Looking around the vacant room after he dressed, Midoriya realized that he hadn't been given any shoes.

_Well, something was going to be overlooked I guess._ He thought as he looked down at his bare feet. I_ think we're indoors so...I'll just wait for her to come back then…_

He didn't have to wait very long as Zelda returned with who he assumed to be Bryan and another attractive woman. The woman was the first to approach him, a cunning smile painted on her lips.

"Ah, I see it was a forceful wake-up call. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised." The other woman and Bryan turned toward Zelda, "Your bite mark didn't heal fully."

"Damn, thought I did a good job healing him so you wouldn't notice," Zelda gave a humorless laugh as she leaned against the doorframe. "He's up though, so let's get this over with."

Midoriya could only sit there stiffly as the three people argued with each other for a moment. He understood most of what was going on, but he was still confused as to what they meant by Zelda healing him? Did she have two quirks? Or maybe healing was her quirk?

"I hope you don't plan on feeding on him throughout this," Bryan teased with a playful pinch of Zelda's cheek. "I don't think he or Eveline would appreciate it."

"I-"

Midoriya made a loud yelp and the group turned back to him to find that he was pale and he was crying. "F-F-F-Feed!? Off of M-M-M-ME?!"

"Yes!" Bryan grinned while the other two were still in shock from Midoriya's quick crying. "Zelda here is a vampire after all! She likes to slowly drink from people, making them her little slaves and-"

"BRYAN!" Zelda punched Bryan square in the face before grabbing his arms and holding him down with her boot pressed against his spine, ready to rip his arms out if he uttered another word. "I DO NOT DO THAT! AND I WASN'T PLANNING ON FEEDING OFF OF HIM YOU FREAK!"

"Oh dear…" the other woman sighed, "Alright, you two need to leave."

"Not until he apologizes!"

"NEVER!"

"That's enough!" The woman clapped her hands together, snapping her fingers when her hands pulled away from each other, and a hole that seemed to go to another room appeared beneath the arguing pair. They dropped through the hole and then it quickly closed.

"Ah!" Midoriya hadn't a clue of what was going on and felt that he should do something to protect himself. However, there was a piece of his mind that reminded him that no one had hurt him since he came into their custody. Even so, he didn't like being vulnerable like this.

"I apologize for abducting you during the night and forcing you into a day-long slumber, but I trust that you'll understand why in a moment."

"U-Uh…"

The woman smirked slightly and seated herself in the air, which unnerved Midoriya further. "I suppose I should introduce myself. My name's Merlin and I was formerly the most powerful sorceress of the kingdom of Liones. You wouldn't know anything about that place, so don't think about it too hard, okay?"

Midoriya wanted to say something but kept his mouth shut. He figured that it might be best to just listen for now and then ask questions later.

"Now, let's get the point of this; I need your help in rescuing Eveline."

"Eveline!?"

"Yes," Merlin moved slightly, her posture tenser than it was before. "It's complicated and I can't tell you everything just yet."

"W-Wait!" He cried in a panic, "Is-Is that why she told me that she couldn't talk to me? She said she had to cut off our-"

"Ah, you two had a spiritual link?" Merlin asked; he noted how relieved she seemed to be about that fact. "That will make this easier, but you say she cut it off?"

"I-I think so...I'm not sure but I felt something when she stopped talking to me! Like she was gone, even though I didn't realize that I was feeling her with me…" Midoriya struggled with the idea that the whole time they were talking, Eveline never told him about her being held against her will. Why?

"The link isn't gone," Merlin muttered softly to herself, during his brief sulking, Merlin had done something to him without him noticing. "She's blocked it, which makes sense as she can't use her powers within that cell without alerting anyone."

Midoriya's eyes widened, "What might happen if she did?"

"What?"

"What if she did use her powers in her cell, what would happen to her?"

Merlin moved closer to Midoriya, invading his personal space to glare. "Did she do something?"

"A-Ah! Well…" Midoriya hesitantly explained what had happened during the fight with Gentle, how she had appeared and how she watched the concert through him. Merlin's frown deepened until she couldn't keep her frustration to herself.

"That foolish girl, it explains why security was heightened the last two days." She then pinched the bridge of her nose. "Alright, we can work around this."

Midoriya remained quiet, fearing that somehow he had done something wrong until another person came into the room.

"Merlin," The large man said as he stood in the doorway, "Zelda told us our guest was up. Should we gather in your study?"

Merlin nodded wearily and asked that he make sure everyone who knew the secret was present. "Oh, and Drystan? Tell your sister that I intend to use a spell on her if she can't get a hold of herself."

Drystan nodded and quickly left to carry out Merlin's orders, leaving Midoriya alone with her again.

"S-So," he finally said after a moment of silence. "I-Is there something I should know before this...meeting?"

Merlin gave that a thought and sighed, "I suppose I should brief you on it so that we don't have any misunderstandings. I will say that I want you to understand that we chose you specifically for this purpose that I'm about to explain and we need your full cooperation for this to work."

Midoriya nodded, "Alright, so what's this mission?"

"Now that's what I like to hear," Merlin's smile returned as she leaned back into a relaxed position. "The whole story is a bit much to go over, but Eveline has an older sister, Guenivere, who is looking to kill Eveline and lay waste to the human realm with the help of some warlord that showed up a few years ago. We don't understand her motives nor do we know the real relationship between Guinevere and that human lord, but we do know that she intends to act soon."

"So you're breaking Eveline out before that can happen."

"Exactly, we need to have her removed from their custody and from there, it's a matter of keeping her safe for the time being," Merlin let out a slight sigh that seemed more for show than out of any genuine emotion. "For now, we need you because no one here knows who you are and it'll be a good way to tie up any potential loose ends."

Midoriya didn't understand how that last part worked, but seeing as he now was involved in this rescue mission, he may as well go with it. Besides, Eveline was in trouble and it was his job to help her. However, there was clearly more to the circumstances than what Merlin was sharing and he couldn't bring himself to fully accept the responsibility she was presenting him when he hadn't clue what it fully entailed.

"Okay, but that can't be it," He stated firmly, maintaining eye contact with the smug woman. "You picked me, somehow. So, what use do you think I have?"

Merlin only smiled before shaking her head. "You sure have a keen eye. For that, I guess I should reward you; I've kept an eye on you for some time while scouting for potential places to hide Eveline. I intend to send her with you after we rescue her, along with a few others. Your world is a perfect place for her to be for a while."

That wasn't the answer he was expecting and he found himself without words until Merlin told him that they should go meet with the others.

"I should warn you that they have some unique personalities that are hard to handle sometimes. Think you'll be okay?"

Midoriya nodded, confident that his wild classmates prepared him for all kinds of weirdness, only to be horribly proven wrong.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3: Culture Shock**_

* * *

Midoriya sat between a huge silver-haired man named Mael and Drystan while Bryan and his sister Anna held an arm-wrestling contest with a pink-haired guy named Gowther acting as their referee.

When Merlin brought him to the room that acted as their group's meeting office, he was pounced on by a small (even compared to him) young woman with pinkish-orange hair and deep purple eyes who was the Flora he had heard about while sleeping.

He was immediately embarrassed but the young fairy hardly cared; she openly declared that Midoriya was the cutest boy she had ever seen and that he was now her boyfriend, much to her brother's annoyance and Midoriya's horror. Her brother, Drystan, quickly apprehended her and apologized profusely over her inappropriate actions.

"She's not bright and acts without thinking." He had said before dragging her out of the room to scold her.

After that, Bryan seized the green-haired teenager and brought him to his younger sister Anna. These two, unlike Drystan and Flora, looked nearly identical and acted as if they were one person in two bodies. They spoke in unison, though not always, loved to play games (especially any that involved alcohol or physical strength), and they both decided on a whim that they liked him.

It was through them that he was introduced to Gowther, who eagerly greeted Midoriya but was unable to engage in a conversation with him as the other two suddenly demanded their arm-wrestling match. As they required a referee, Gowther suggested that Midoriya greet Mael as they would be the ones to work together the most.

"A good relationship between you will make this a lot smoother." Was what he said before turning to the wild siblings and starting the match.

It took Midoriya five seconds to realize that he hadn't a clue who Mael was and given that he had met everyone in the room at present, he had decided to just sit in a corner of the room and wait for someone to throw themselves at him again.

It didn't take that long; Flora and Drystan eventually returned and she tried to throw herself at him again, only to be caught by Zelda.

"How many times do we have to tell you to stop throwing yourself at people?" Zelda asked with a heavy sigh. "If you keep this up, I'll happily leave you behind when we leave."

Flora took the threat with all seriousness and reluctantly sulked off to pout quietly to herself. Drystan and Zelda weren't the least bothered and the tall brunette took it upon himself to properly educate Midoriya on everyone he'd be working with.

"There's a total of five main races and clans in this world," he stated as he seated himself next to the teenager. "In this room, all five are represented as most of us are half-breeds."

"What are the clans?" Midoriya asked as his hand twitched in anticipation. Nothing bothered him more than the fact that he hadn't one of his notebooks to write in.

"Humans, Giants, Fairies, Goddesses, and Demons. There are subraces included, like Vampires, which is what Zelda is, but that's a little complicated."

Midoriya nodded and glanced around the room, "So, what are you? I-If I may ask…"

Drystan shrugged, "Half-Giant, half Fairy. Flora takes after our dad so she's more fairy. I'm like our mom, so I have to take medicine that lets me be human-sized for a bit."

"Huh…" it humiliated Midoriya that he couldn't think of a better response than that, but Drystan didn't seem to mind. "Can...can you tell me about the others? They don't seem too keen on talking right now."

"Sure, pick someone and I'll tell you what you need to know."

Again, Midoriya nodded and took a moment to think of who might be the most interesting to learn about. He had a lot of questions and he didn't know what Drystan's patience would be like, so he figured that he should start with whoever might have a lot to talk about. Which meant, he asked about Merlin.

"Her?" When Midoriya confirmed that he asked about her, Drystan's demeanor changed slightly leaving Midoriya to wonder what her status among them was. "Don't get too comfortable with her, she's not known for her strict loyalty unless it involves her goals or interests. She's an ally, for now, she's paying off an old debt by helping us."

"How much do you trust her?"

"Very little," he stated coldly, "Eveline trusts her more than any of us, even Mael can't bring himself to have faith."

Midoriya took that in with an innocent frown, and asked if there might be things he should look out for that could mean trouble.

"It's hard to tell with Merlin, she keeps her intentions well-guarded and you could think you figured her out but she'll always surprise you."

"Ah...I see.." In truth, he was more concerned with Merlin's unpredictable nature but he felt he should move on to see who else might be on the fence. "What about Zelda…? What's she like?"

Drystan smiled, seemingly out of amusement, and answered, "That's Eveline's cousin, daughter of the second demon prince Zeldris and the vampire queen, Gelda. I might suggest you call her Lady Zelda because she's proud of her heritage."

Before Midoriya could say anything, a deeper voice interrupted them.

"If you're going to suggest that, then he should call you and Flora Lord and Lady too."

Glancing to his right, Midoriya felt small compared to this new man; he stood about two feet taller than him and had a body type comparable to Endeavor without his costume. He seemed like the stern type, but Drystan's casual response to him made Midoriya wonder what this man must be like.

"That's rude, Mael. I'd like to keep a friendly relationship with our homestay host. Speaking of which, what is your name?"

Midoriya blushed and lowered his head as he realized that is being introduced to everyone, no one heard Merlin say his name. Then again, everyone was rowdy when they entered. "Izuku Midoriya, but everyone calls me Deku."

"Deku? Alright, Deku it is!" Bryan cheered as he struggled against his sister's might. "Let's share a drink later!"

"A-Ah…" Midoriya's face heated and he tried to stammer out an excuse but Mael beat him to the punch.

"Don't worry about that," Mael gently smiled as he patted the young man's shoulder. "He'll drink your cup before you can touch it."

"I-Okay…" From there was how Midoriya found himself sitting between Drystan and Mael.

Drystan had finished giving Midoriya all he needed to know about everyone, including that Bryan and Anna were his cousins, but he didn't tell the flustered teen much else after that. Mael, however, had struck up a conversation with Midoriya, though it was mostly about what his world was like and few things like if Midoriya knew how he planned to accommodate everyone he would be taking back to his world.

"H-How many am I taking?!" He asked, his voice cracking was the last he wanted at the moment but it happened regardless. "S-Sorry, but Merlin never told me who was going and it's not like I came to this world knowing what was going on."

Mael nodded and explained that most everyone in the room was going with him. "Merlin, myself, and Gowther plan to stay behind."

"You're forgetting Bartra," Drystan added with a yawn, "He's not letting Eveline out of his sight once we get her."

"Yes, Bartra too. So, that's six people."

H-How am I gonna hide six people from the teachers!? No, no, no I can't hide anyone from them! But what am I gonna do!? There's nowhere for them to go once they get to my world! His internal struggle was felt by another and the voice that he longed and dreaded to hear again flooded his mind.

_**Izuku? What's wrong?**_

It took so much willpower for him to not jump or make his surprise obvious to everyone around him. He didn't answer her though, fearing that he wouldn't be able to hide this connection the two of them had. He didn't know how anyone would react and he hadn't figured out who to trust in this group of wild individuals.

_I'll tell you later._

Eveline made some protests but he remained firm. Besides, they needed to talk about that photo Bakugo showed him and why it seemed that Eveline didn't remember him.

Merlin eventually returned with an older man (Mael pointed at him and told Midoriya that he was Eveline's grandfather) and a young man with wild orange hair who Bryan greeted as Arthur. She called everyone to order, "Alright, is everyone here?"

"As present as ever!" Anna cheered with a grin, "So what's the plan?"

Merlin urged the two newcomers to take a seat and began explaining what they currently knew of Eveline's situation.

"She's been moved from tower cell to the lower ones, I can't say for sure which floor or roughly where we can find her. The guard who tipped me could only say that Guinevereknows for sure where Eveline is."

Midoriya saw where Zelda's lip twitch and she demanded to know why Eveline had been moved.

"The day we brought in Izuku Midoriya; something happened at the prison and it was decided that Eveline needed to be under special observation. From what was described, I believe that her powers activated somehow and that alarmed the guards. We can only guess what happened after that." Merlin turned her gaze toward Zelda and smiled, "I don't think it puts us at too much of a disadvantage, but we can still make changes to our plan if you wish."

Merlin didn't receive much of a response from the dark-haired woman, only a soft growl and an averted glare, though Bartra had plenty of questions regarding his granddaughter.

"They wouldn't have done anything to her, right? If it was an accident..."

"I don't know if it was an accident," Merlin admitted with some dejection, "Eveline wouldn't have done anything like that purposefully, but we can't cross out the possibility."

Midoriya felt his body tense slightly; he had a feeling that the use of power that they were talking about was when Eveline helped him against Gentle and when she watched the festival. If he had known she was putting herself in danger, he would have told her not to do anything to help him! But then again, what if the accident was caused because she wasn't expecting some kind of backlash. He wondered if he should ask Merlin for specifics or the culprit herself; now wouldn't be the best time for that though.

"I know she's still alive, and we should be grateful for that much." Merlin stated rather coldly, "still, I think we might need to change tactics regarding how we'll get in. With an increase of guards, I doubt we can get in and out unnoticed."

The group agreed with that idea and a sort of gloom fell over them as they discussed what they could do for their friend. Everything they discussed made little sense to Midoriya; he didn't know anything about some Demon Realm nor did he understand what they meant about attack magic and Illusion magic. In fact, he had plenty of questions about this magic they kept talking about.

So Quirks aren't a thing here? Or is Magic what they call Quirks? I'm so confused and I don't know how to ask about this. He glanced around the room, noticing that everyone was wholly invested in their strategy; to interrupt them and ask all of his questions would annoy them, no doubt. So, he turned to the only person who would listen to him.

_Eveline, are you...Will you tell me about magic?_

To his dismay, he didn't get an immediate response as he had hoped, but he realized that Eveline might be confused as to why he was asking about something she never shared with him. He told her all about Quirks and how they worked, but she never told him about her world or her powers. The first time he had ever learned about her having powers was the fight with Gentle.

**_How do you know about that, Izuku?_**

How he should answer that evaded him; just blurt out that her friends abducted him from his world so that he could help save her? She took great pains to hide the truth of her situation from him and as much as it hurt him (and in a way, he didn't understand why he felt that way) he could guess that she had her reasons. After all, until now, there was nothing he could have done for her and maybe she knew that based on what he had told her about himself and his world.

And then it clicked.

Eveline knew they weren't from the same world from the beginning. She knew more of their bizarre connection than him and kept herself shrouded in mystery to spare him the pain of when she'd disappear because she accepted that she's going to die.

_Eveline?_ His mental voice cracked as he spoke to her. In-person, he lowered his head and fought against the tears that were trying to fall from his eyes.

**_Yes?_**

_If I asked you for your honesty, will you tell me what's happening to you?_

She was silent, which he expected, and when she answered he felt a weight place itself on his shoulders.

**_My sister plans to publicly execute me by the week's end. She has me imprisoned for false crimes and labeled me a traitor to….everyone in my world. Izuku, why are you asking these weird questions?_**

_So, you don't know? Do you really believe you're going to die?_

**_Izuku…?_**

_Don't you know? There are people trying to save you! Zelda, Mael, Drystan, Anna, Flora, Bryan, your grandfather, Gowther, Merlin, and someone named Arthur! They took me from my world and brought me here to help save you!_

**_What do you mean? Why would they pick you? And why were they looking in other worlds for help?_**

Immediately, Midoriya felt regret in telling her what was going on as he could hear the fear and pain in Eveline's voice. He hadn't told why they were looking at other worlds, but he had a feeling that she was able to figure that part out. Maybe, she's already aware of that part of the plan…

_I-I don't know for sure...But Merlin told me that since no one in this world knows me, it'd be a good way to tie up loose ends. But that's beside the point! Why are you acting as no one will save you?!_

**_B-Because! After everything that has happened, everyone's turned on me! My family, my friends! Even the people I fought so hard to protect don't want me!_ **Her voice weakened and he could tell that she was crying both in her mind and in person. **_Guinevere's too powerful now and I can't bring myself to fight my sister..._**

_So you'll take an unjust death? Just like that?_ Midoriya took a few uneven breaths to calm himself. He couldn't damn her for feeling like no one cared about her; he didn't even know the particulars of what was happening in this world. But he did know this: he was going to save her.

_**I don't know what else to do...I'm weak compared to the others. My powers are unpredictable…**_

_Don't worry about that, because...I am here now and I swear that I will save you._ Midoriya lifted his eyes and saw that everyone was too invested in arguing among themselves to have noticed him._ There was one thing he needed to know though. Eveline, who do you trust?_

_**Zelda.**_ She answered promptly, **_If there's anyone who should be trusted, it's her. Out of everyone you named, she's the best fighter and she knows me better than anyone._**

_May I tell her what you've told me? Better yet, I am going to tell her but she might not believe me._

**_You want me to prove that we can talk to each other like this?_**

_Can you?_

**_I can try, I don't exactly know how to force a projection of myself like I did for you but I can try. Worst case scenario, I could just tell you her embarrassing stories that only I know._**

_I'd like to not die._ He said quickly as he worriedly glanced Zelda's way, relieved that she wasn't looking his way.

**_I meant that as a last resort…._**

_Still not okay with it. But tell me, now that we're being honest; What is magic and how does it work?_

_**It's hard to explain, there's nothing definitive about it like there seems to be for your quirks. I suppose in general terms, it's a manifestation of belief, willpower, and is usually found through training and even experimentation. Races like Goddesses and Demons are technically born with this kind of power, but we must unlock it and learn to harness it for ourselves. Humans are born with the capability, but they have to put themselves through rigorous training to achieve anything magical.**_

_They're talking about magical attacks, do you know anything about that?_

_**It depends on who you're talking about: our powers vary from person to person just like Quirks. Take Merlin for example; she's a powerful sorceress because her power is Infinity. She can learn any magic and perform it without any drawbacks.**_

That was interesting to him as he realized that, in theory, quirks and magic weren't that different. However, they couldn't be that similar so he decided that he needed to see his companion's powers in action to fully understand how different they were from Quirks. It would give him the advantage to know should he have to join any battles.

_Alright, is there anything else I should know?_

**_Yes, and I need you to relay this to Zelda when you talk to her._**

_What is it?_

**_They have the twins._**

* * *

When the meeting finally adjourned, Merlin asked Mael to escort Midoriya to his room for the time being which was conveniently across from Zelda's bedroom. She wasn't bothered by it like he was, but she seemed suddenly interested in talking with him so she invited him into her room. And by invited, she hauled him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him into her room, telling Mael that she just wanted to have some words with him.

"Aren't there nicer ways you could have done this?" he asked rather pathetically as she dropped him onto the floor.

"I don't care if there is," She replied with a half-amused smirk, "besides, pleasantries aren't my style. You would have known that if you had asked Eveline."

"Ha?"

Zelda had seated herself on top of her bed, cross one leg over the other as she looked down on the green-haired teenager. "I'm not dumb, nor am I blind. I know what it looks like when you have a telepathic link with someone. And who else would you have a link with?"

"W-What..? What makes you think it was Eveline? It could have been someone from my world!"

"Because the goddess symbol briefly appeared in your eyes, I'm amazed you didn't know that."

"G-Goddess symbol?!"

_Eveline! Help!_

**_What's wrong?_**

_Zelda says that a symbol appears in my eyes when you talk to me!_

**_The Triskelion? That can't be right, someone from your world would have noticed it before. Unless…._**

"For it to show up, a Goddess has to be possessing your body," Zelda explained, almost as if she knew what Eveline was about to say. "She's not in full possession, not even half. I'd say it's probably even less than a quarter, but it's enough for such a change to briefly occur. Your eyes don't even turn orange like they're supposed to."

"Possession…? So then, you saw us talking earlier?"

"I'll give you some credit, I thought you were deep in your thoughts until the Triskelion appeared," she uncrossed her legs and leaned forward slightly. "So, care to share what you were talking about?"


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4: The Disappearance of Izuku Midoriya**_

* * *

The morning following the school's cultural festival came rather slowly for the students of UA and it felt odd to those of Class 1-A. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was suddenly raining when the day before had been bright and sunny. Or maybe it was because everyone was still exhausted from the festival and it took them more energy to leave their beds than normal.

Or maybe it was because Midoriya hadn't been seen yet, which was highly unusual as he usually was up and training by six or seven. True, it was the weekend, but he always got up before the sunrise to train, no matter what.

Since everyone was feeling a bit sluggish, no one was immediately worried, coming up with logical reasons for the green-haired teenager being oddly absent until they couldn't help but grow concerned. To ease everyone, Iida offered to check on Midoriya.

Iida went to Midoriya's dorm to check on his friend, only to not get any response. He tried a couple more times before giving up and returning to the common room alone. He reasoned that maybe Midoriya was exhausted from the festival and that he might come out later, but that never happened. They waited and waited; Uraraka tried to go up and check on him, but Tsuyu managed to divert her attention elsewhere until it was impossible to pretend that everything was okay. By eleven, Bakugo broke down Midoriya's door, finding the room to be empty.

"He's not here?" Kirishima asked, poking his head into the room after Bakugo entered.

"Bed's not made and the sliding door is closed," Bakugo noted aloud and carefully glanced around the room. It felt wrong for him to be in there, but he easily pushed away those feelings as he inspected the room. "If he ain't here, where the hell is he?!"

Kirishima only meekly replied as he texted Iida, informing him that Midoriya wasn't in his room and that there was no sign of him leaving, either voluntarily or by force. His shoes were still by the door, none of the doors were unlocked; they had nothing to go off of.

"Iida's informing the teachers, we should probably wait outside the room or…" Kirishima looked up from his phone and saw Bakugo rummaging through some of the things Midoriya left out in the open. "hey, what are you doing?"

While Kirishima had been texting their class president, Bakugi had taken it upon himself to look at one of the notebooks that Midoriya had left out on his desk. It was one of his many observation notebooks and, under normal circumstances, Bakugo wouldn't have bothered with it. However, he had the slightest suspicion that if there were any clues regarding Midoriya's disappearance, it might be in that notebook.

Picking it up without much regard for what Kirishima was saying, he opened it and read it. For the most part, most of what he found related only to their classmates and a few new strategies and whatnot. Nothing out of the ordinary until he reached the middle pages.

From there, he found a handful of pages dedicated to Gentle Criminal, La Brava, and finally, Eveline Liones. Why did it bother him to see her name written down? And why did he clench his teeth as he read about every intimate detail that Midoriya thoughtfully jotted down about the woman he supposedly barely knew?

Thinking back to last night, Bakugo realized how much Midoriya kept to himself and what made him angrier was that Midoriya managed to keep his cool as he lied to them. Midoriya said that he and Eveline only had a telepathic connection, but that fight with Gentle suggested otherwise. He didn't know much about her, but she dropped hints about herself through nostalgic slips that Midoriya caught but kept to himself. However, Bakugo couldn't say that the information was all that new to him.

When they met as children, Eveline told them both about how she was the daughter of the Demon King and Supreme Goddess, making her a princess. She told them about the Seven Deadly Sins, the Holy Wars, her family; she was quite the unrestrained chatterbox back then so what happened to make her so reserved? Not to mention that Eveline seemed to never allude to knowing Midoriya; such an important detail should have been brought up by Eveline at least unless maybe she didn't remember Midoriya. His voice had changed since childhood, but Eveline should have seen Midoriya during that fight and the teen hadn't changed, he just got a little taller and buffer.

Irritated as he was, Bakugo was beginning to notice something that he didn't want to admit; Eveline had some sort of link or connection to Midoriya and it might have been that link that caused Midoriya to vanish. What sparked this hypothesis was the fight between Midoriya and Gentle Criminal; Obviously, Eveline's involvement in the fight raised some questions and considering that Eveline had come to their world before (admitted through unknown means) there was the possibility that she could have taken Midoriya. The only question would be how she managed to do it.

"Hey, Shitty Hair," Bakugo called to Kirishima, "I need you to do something for me."

"What?"

Bakugo peeled his eyes away from the pages and gave Kirishima a hard glare, "Make me an account on Reddit or something and start asking for information of an Eveline Liones."

"Huh? Why?" Kirishima was about to enter the room but Bakugo was already making his way out as he shoved the notebook into the red-haired teen's chest. "Uh.."

"Because she might have something to do with this, so get moving." With that, Bakugo was out of the room and gone.

Kirishima stood there with the open notebook pressed against his chest, unsure of what he had just witnessed and heard. Did Bakugo look...angry? Sad? Hurt? He wasn't sure what that look was but he wasn't about to go figure it out. Besides, what was in this notebook that caused that strange reaction?

Curious enough to read it, Kirishima learned a valuable lesson in not always following through with his curiosity.

* * *

By the end of the day, everyone came to accept that Midoriya was missing. All Might hadn't seen him that morning and had been the first person to assume the worst as he texted and called his protege almost a hundred times in thirty minutes. He had gotten ahold of Aizawa before Iida did, expressing concern and asking if maybe Midoriya had been serving some punishment for his fight yesterday. When Aizawa denied such a punishment, Iida had arrived to tell them that they couldn't find Midoriya either. The day had been spent carefully searching the campus for the teenager whilst not alarming the other students. When they couldn't find any leads or the slightest hint of the teen's presence, they had to admit the undeniable truth.

As the sunset, the teachers all gathered in their conference room and discussed what they should do. First, they had to establish what they knew for certain and what was only a potential lead.

Midoriya had disappeared at some point during the night; footage of last night's surveillance showed that no one ever left 1-A's dorm and, as Midoriya's veranda happened to be filmed during the robot's scanning, they saw that his lights were out. The timestamp said 21:45 or 9:45 pm, which was unusual as Midoriya usually was up studying until one in the morning at most. Given everything that had happened the day before, the teachers all agreed that Midoriya had to be tired and went to bed early.

"Do we happen to have any later footage of the night?" Midnight asked as she nervously twirled a pen. "Maybe we can see something unusual?"

Snipe, who had been looking over the footage with Hound Dog, nodded and put up the next video they had. "This one focuses on his window for a moment, we couldn't figure out why though. It's stamped at midnight, right on the dot."

The video played, at first, the camera was casually scanning the area, doing its usual rounds, until it quickly jerked to the right and focused on Midoriya's closed curtains. There was nothing unusual from what they could see; no lights, no movements, so what caused the robot to look there?

"A malfunction?" Power Loader asked.

Ectoplasm shook his head, "No, those robots are checked every day, we would have noticed if something was wrong before the festival."

"Indeed…" Aizawa tiredly stared at the projection until he felt his eyes go dry, "what causes the robots to do that? Movement?"

PowerLoader shook his head, "No, movement is one thing that could have gotten its attention, but there's also sound and heat signatures."

"I didn't hear anything unusual," Present Mic noted with a sigh, "Is there a way to check the infrared?"

Snipe messed around with the settings until he got the video to show the infrared version. Starting from the beginning, there was nothing unusual until the camera panned to Midoriya's veranda, this time they say that room was several degrees hotter than the other rooms, which should have been impossible as the rooms didn't come with individual thermostats. The area of his room was a bright reddish-orange while everyone else's room was a yellow or purplish-blue.

"What the…" All Might stood up from his seat as did Aizawa, "What is that?"

The other teachers sat there in awe as they observed the video, noticing details that they wouldn't have seen with the original version of the clip. They watched the video several times, trying their hardest to see if there was something else that could have missed with this new perception. It took them a while until Present Mic noticed something a little strange happening behind those curtains.

"What is that?" He asked as he pointed toward the curtains. "Are they moving?"

"What do you mean they're moving?" Midnight moved closer to see what the loud blonde was talking about. "Where do you see that?

"Go back a bit, it's subtle but I swear I saw it move."

Snipe rewound the video, stopping when Present Mic suddenly shouted for him to stop.

"There! Right there!" Mic jumped out of his chair and pointed at the curtain, "Try it without the infrared! I bet it's something!"

Before Snipe changed the video, the group did see the curtain move or, maybe, it wasn't the curtain. When the video switched, they watched the clip again and did notice something moving, this time they were able to see that the curtain did move with what looked like a person standing by it. A person that didn't look like Midoriya.

"Who is that…?" Midnight turned to Hound Dog and asked if he had sniffed out Midoriya's room.

Hound dog growled and barked, which translated to the following statement. "I smelled Bakugo and Todoroki in there but nothing unusual. There was a strange burnt smell but I could never pinpoint where it came from and it was gone before long."

"A burnt smell? Like smoke?"

Hound dog shook his head and growled again, "No like something metal was burning hot."

"What could that have been?" All Might mused aloud, "And what about Young Midoriya? You never said you smelled him."

"His scent was faint, almost as if he hadn't been there in a while." Ectoplasm said, having already had this conversation with Hound Dog earlier in the day. "I would say that the metal scent must have overpowered his scent, which might be why it's so faint."

"But that still leaves the question of what happened and why was it you smelled Bakugo and Todoroki in there? Wasn't the two who went into the room this morning Bakugo and Kirishima?"

"Indeed…" Aizawa lowered his head, the headache that this was becoming was going to kill him. There were so many unanswered questions and worst of all, they had nothing to go off of. "For now, what can we do?"

"We have to inform his mother," Ectoplasm stated matter of factly, "we need to also involve the police in this."

"Yes, we must do that first and foremost, but I have some concerns about the general public knowing about this." Nezu sighed, "Learning of a breach in security could hurt us in the public's eye and put our students at risk."

The teachers all agreed but that also put a strain on the thought of telling Midoriya's mother about the disappearance of her son. She had been strongly against the idea of Midoriya continuing his studies at UA and this wasn't going to help anything, but neither would hiding this fact from her.

"We don't have enough to work with, perhaps we can hold off telling Mrs. Midoriya?" All Might nervously suggested, "All we know for sure is that he's gone and that there's no evidence that he left his room at night. With only that, she'll be a hysterical mess."

"But not telling her-"

"We'll tell her, just not immediately." All Might reasoned softly, "We could say that the police needed to do their job first before we could tell her anything."

That didn't help ease anyone, but even Aizawa understood All Might's perspective on the matter and added his opinion on it. "It's not a bad idea; perhaps not the best choice where morals are involved, but we should let the police do their part before anything is shared."

Naturally, the teachers argued about it for a moment more before Nezu finally decided to give his choice on the matter.

"I suppose it isn't morally correct to withhold this information from her," he said in low voice, "but we can't always be on the moral side of things when that could put everyone in danger. As it stands, we don't know where he is or how he disappeared, though we have something to suggest that it happened in his dorm room. With only that, we have nothing to ease her nerves and then we must think of the students and their parents. News like this travels fast. And therefore, I will only allow for two days for the police to see what they can find. After that, we must tell her no matter what."

The teachers reluctantly agreed before asking what they could do to help the situation as it stood. For now, they thought up of a way to inspect the other dorms without arousing suspicion and the security bots were programmed to carefully observe students' rooms. An additional three boys were given orders to only watch Midoriya's room and to give notice if anything unusual happens during the search for him. From there, however, they were at a loss; with so little to go off of, this was all they could think of.

The meeting promptly ended without any comforting resolution reached, not that they expected to reach anything satisfactory. Still, the teachers were forced to leave feeling as if they had failed in some way. They all wondered what could have been done to prevent this. Was there anything they could have done to prevent this? Possibly, but how? Midoriya wasn't acting suspicious or like he was in any danger; as much as he might try to solve problems on his own, the poor kid was terrible at lying and they would have caught on to any ruse of his. So, what happened?

Aizawa, as he left the faculty room, thought back to Eri and Mirio and how they might react to the news. The young girl had already been given to the school and her room was all set up for her; to help her with the transition, he planned to have everyone involved in her rescue to greet her but now that wouldn't work. As much as Aizawa didn't want to hide anything, he couldn't imagine how Eri would react to learning that the boy who helped her was now gone. Would she blame herself? Most likely. Might it cause more issues for her mental health? Who was he kidding, this would just hurt her because she still held onto some guilt. But really, this had nothing to do with her so maybe he could talk her out of that mentality.

And then Mirio...He's already lost his mentor, and now a friend? True, they were certain that the first-year student was still alive as they had no reason to believe otherwise, but they didn't know where he was. Mirio was struggling with the loss of his quirk and not being able to help with this investigation was going to add to his growing sorrow.

He thought about it while he made his way to 1-A's dorms. He had been giving special instructions to inform the class of what had been discussed and decided in regards to what was going to happen from here on out. Luckily, (once it became clear that this was an emergency) the class already imposed their own rules toward the matter; no one was allowed to share the event with anyone outside of 1-A, including with their parents and they were to try to assist with the investigation however possible.

It was moments like this that reminded him how devoted these students were toward each other and their future hero work. With Iida and Yaoyorozu organizing them, together these kids could accomplish so much and this showed it. However, they were still teenagers, not exactly seasoned heroes who have faced a plethora of cases like this, so it was only a matter of time before they cracked under pressure. He wanted to alleviate as much of the strain to keep the students from emotionally overexerting themselves, but, like Midoriya, they would take everything on and that's the one thing he was going to have nip in the bud if he was going to allow them to be of any assistance.

"Sensei!" A young woman's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked up and found Uraraka and Iida sprinting his way. The brunette looked hopeful while the class representative appeared to feel the same, if not a bit more on edge.

"What is it?" He asked quickly, unsure of what could have encouraged these two to come out like this. He was grateful that it was late enough that the other students were back in their dorms so there weren't any onlookers as far as he knew.

"Sensei, Bakugo says he knows what happened to-!" Before Uraraka could continue, Iida caught up to her and quickly covered her mouth. "Mph!"

"Forgive me, Uraraka, but remember what we said earlier about keeping this under wraps." He said as he gently released her. "But yes, Bakugo has a theory."

"What..?" That was, perhaps, the most uplifting thing he had heard and he quickly squashed it to avoid getting hopeful. He followed the two students back into the dorm and found all of 1-A in the common room; some of the students were crowding around Bakugo as he was looking at something on his laptop while the rest were scattered around, probably pacing.

"Where is he?" Aizawa demanded as politely as he could, "Tell me."

"I never said I knew where he was, I said I had a feeling," Bakugo growled as he pulled up a discussion forum for the teacher to see while Kirishima opened the notebook and handed it to Aizawa. "But I think my theory is the best shot we got."

"Okay, but what is it then?"

"Just read."

Aizawa, though annoyed, read the forum. It was a Reddit post made by Bakugo, asking if there was anyone familiar with the name Eveline Liones. Two replies followed.

The first was by a user called BritainHistorian09 and they said that Eveline Liones was a mythical figure within British myths, just like King Arthur. She was the daughter of a powerful goddess and demon and she was a protector of the human race. The user linked several sources and said that there were theories that Eveline did exist but in an alternate universe as someone with a powerful warp quirk had visited her once. They linked that article as well.

The second user, **_merlinsapprentice_**, provided something different.

Eveline Liones, as in the granddaughter of King Bartra of Liones and daughter of Elizabeth and Meliodas? I never met her, but I met her cousin, Zelda. Apparently, they were playing near a lake and when they fell in, they were separated and Zelda ended up in my neighborhood. She told me about Eveline though; really pretty, light blonde hair, emerald eyes, fair skin, dressed in a plaid red/white dress with matching red shoes. I think she was also supposed to have a hat on her head too. Anyways, my grandpa was the man who had that Warp Quirk that the first user mentioned. I have pictures that he took of her if you'd like to see them. Here's the link.

My Grandpa has journals of his trip in Britannia, if there's anything you need to know, I can help.

Aizawa pulled away from the screen and looked at the notebook that Kirishima had given him. The first thing he saw was Eveline's name and he carefully read the notes that Midoriya left. His blood boiled as he found the small mention of the ringing in Midoriya's ear being a coverup for his communication with Eveline. And then a detailed part about her entering Midoriya's body? This boy was getting put on cleaning duty for three weeks when they find him.

"Here," Bakugo held out the old photo he shared with Midoriya while simultaneously clicking on the link merlinsapprentice shared with him. The pictures showed the same little girl that was in his photo. "It's the same person. I saw her...ghost or spirit during the concert."

"What..?" Aizawa squinted his eyes in frustration, "What do you mean you saw her? I didn't see her anywhere."

"I saw her as well," Todoroki added, "Kirishima as well, but we both thought it was a trick of the light at first."

"Yeah!" Kirishima nodded eagerly, "I saw what looked like a sort of glowing mist around Deku, but I was shaving the ice so I thought that was what it was. Todoroki and Bakugo confronted Deku about it last night."

Aizawa was taken aback by that, "Confronted him? Why?"

"He had been acting strange lately and we thought that maybe they would be able to get him to be honest about it," Uraraka cried softly, her head lowered as she spoke. "I mean, he was spacing out a lot and sometimes he'd say something that didn't make any sense to whoever heard him."

"So we cornered him in his room and he told us what had been happening," Todoroki turned to Bakugo, trying to see whether or not the explosive blonde would help elaborate. Luckily, Bakugo was in a helping mood.

"That idiot said that Eveline had been singing or talking to him and that he had been keeping her company. She started talking to him sometime after that mission he internship crap."

Aizawa clenched his teeth, "Why the hell didn't he say anything?"

"Said he didn't want to worry anyone and he didn't want you to think it was because of Eri," Uraraka said rather suddenly, only to realize that she had spoken out of line. "At least, that's what Todoroki said…"

"And he did say _something_," Bakugo growled again, "He told the nurse it was ringing in his ear when he passed out that one time."

"Yes, he lied." Aizawa groaned as he straightened himself, already feeling the beginnings of a headache. For all of Midoriya's achievements, his greatest faults put him into this situation. Even so, there was a lot given, but it still didn't answer the main problem. "This tells me what's been going on, but not where he is."

"Right, well here's my theory," Bakugo said with a humorless grin, "I think that shitty nerd is in another world, read the rest of that thread."

Aizawa gave his student a confused glance before returning and reading the thread.

_**LORDEXPLOSIONMURDER:**_ Actually I do need your help. You said you met Eveline's cousin when you were a kid, I met Eveline as a kid a few years back. Do you know how they got here?

_**merlinsapprentice: **_Past what I first wrote? No, sorry, but I know how they got back. They were being watched by another goddess named Mael and he came and got Zelda. I asked her how they were gonna go back home and she said that Merlin must have made a portal between the two worlds. I should add that in their world, Merlin is a woman and a sorceress, not the wizard that the Arthurian legends we know describe.

_**LORDEXPLOSIONMURDER**_: Do you know if it's possible for them to freely travel between worlds?

_**merlinsapprentice:**_ My grandpa could but it caused him a great deal of pain. His notes say that Merlin could make a portal, but she needs an exact location and the proper supplies. The supplies are hard to come by so she can't just make one willy-nilly. She made one once, I saw it. It doesn't leave any traces except for a weird smell. Kind of like burnt metal, which is weird.

_**LORDEXPLOSIONMURDER:** _Do you think Merlin might want to take anyone from our world?

**_Merlinsapprentice:_** Experimentation. She loves to do that kind of stuff, even on people. Did someone you know get taken? They must have been super interesting to her. She'll give them back when she's done so don't worry too much. But if you want to go after her, you'll need a warp quirk to get there. My grandpa's passed away so he can't help you and neither can I pass this. I didn't inherit his quirk.

Aizawa pulled away a second time and sighed, "You think this Merlin abducted Midoriya?"

"Most likely, given that he was talking Eveline." Bakugo pulled back his laptop and sighed, "It's a stretch, I know but it syncs up with what was happening."

"It's better than what we had," Aizawa begrudgingly admitted, "But that doesn't help us much either. We have no way of getting him back if that's where he is."

Before Bakugo could agree with that statement, a loud squeal erupted from the couches where Mina and Jiro had been sitting with the pink girl's laptop. The two girls had been, during this whole time, doing a background check on **_merlinsapprentice_ **as well as on their grandfather. It was because of them that anyone had hope in finding Midoriya as all the information shared could be verified thanks to their research. And now, they might have found a solution.

"That's where you'd be wrong, Sensei!" Mina cheered as she brought her laptop over. "That old man was making a machine that allows people to go to other worlds, and what do ya know! The schematics are available for download on this website!"

Mina showed them the page, finding that the detailed blueprints were available, though a small footnote added that none of the plans ever worked. The old man died before making any progress on it so there was no way to know if his plans could work even with improvements. However, that didn't faze Mina.

"Hatsume should be able to build it, she's super good with this kind of stuff!" She said as she looked around the room, hoping that everyone might jump on board with her idea. "That user on Reddit could help us, surely they know coordinates or stuff like that from when the old man went."

"I doubt anyone from the support department would agree with you…" Yayaorozu chuckled softly, "but maybe it could work; it's something and Hatsume always finds a way to make the impossible possible."

"Yeah! This could totally work!"

Everyone in the class cheered as the gloom that formerly fell over them dissipated. Aizawa was almost impressed with how easily they switch from hopeless to hopeful. They didn't even have proof of this Merlin's involvement and even with the mention of burnt metal, Aizawa couldn't bring himself fully to the idea. However, at the same time, he felt that this was something.

"Come on Sensei, what are we waiting for!"

And now he had to crush those hopes, despite, for once, not wanting to. Aizawa knew that, deep down, Power Loader would be furious if he allowed Hatsume to develop such a machine so he was forced to quiet the students with a promise that he'd present their idea and theory to the other teachers.

"If they agree, we'll start on it immediately. If not..."

"I think they will!" Denki cheered in his usual airheaded manner, "We'll wait for the results!"

"Yeah!"

* * *

_**A/N: **_Hello and sorry for the long wait! With all the chaos going around, I've just not had the motivation to write, plus I still had classes to attend until this week. (_I should also admit that I hooked onto Toilet Bound Hanako-kun so my attention has been dedicated to that too._) However, now, with the lockdown and classes now being online, I have to write or I will lose my mind.

I'm currently fixing chapter 5 so Chapter 6 might not be coming soon, but trust me, I need to fix 5 because I didn't do a great job on it.

Anyway, I was just thinking of how I've not explored the other characters from SDS, so if you feel like there's a character from that roster that I should dedicate a chapter to, please let me know.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5: Training and Strategy**_

* * *

The following day was rather hectic for Merlin and Zelda; after Midoriya explained everything Eveline had told him (from the week's end execution to the abduction of Zelda and Eveline's baby brothers) the two masterminds had to throw together a new escape plan within just a few hours. Because of that, everyone else was kicked out of Merlin's study within Camelot and were told to entertain themselves with training. Bryan took the opportunity to claim Midoriya as his sparring partner, pushing his sister off onto Drystan.

"Dude, that's wicked!" Bryan grinned as Midoriya struck him with his Shoot Style. "Come on, don't slow down now!"

Midoriya landed a few feet away from Bryan and quickly charged again. Bryan wanted to see what kind of power Midoriya had and Midoriya wasn't opposed to showing him his progress. Of course, without his equipment, his attacks weren't the same. He had to be careful, which meant that Bryan wasn't seeing the full extent of Midoriya's abilities.

It was a bit disappointing for Midoriya, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. "Hey, this isn't just about me! Show me what you can do too!"

"Heh, alright!"

Midoriya wondered at how Bryan could be so cheerfully energetic when in a fight (he was like a cross between Ashido and Kaminari with his bubbliness) but he had to remember what Eveline had told him that night after his meeting with Zelda.

* * *

_**We're the children of the Seven Deadly Sins; the strongest knights in all of Britannia. Our parents passed on their legacy to us and it's our duty to become the next Sins. Uncle Ban was an immortal human, his tolerance for pain was passed down to his children, just like his strength and powers. Bryan probably takes the most after him; not only in looks and physique, but he's stronger than you'd expect. I'd be wary of his Fox Hunt if I were you.**_

* * *

There was a part of Midoriya that was thrilled to be training again and to have someone new to spar against. Bryan's style wasn't anything different to him, except that Bryan was surprisingly agile and quick on his feet. It made Midoriya realize that his movements still weren't quick enough to keep up and he made a note to work on that.

"Not bad, You leave yourself open a lot though," Bryan said as Midoriya called for a break. "That hero training you were talking about, it looks like it does you some good, Deku."

Midoriya smiled and nodded as he wiped away the sweat on his forehead. "Yeah, but I'm still a first-year, so don't expect me to be perfect just yet."

"Huh!?" Bryan approached Midoriya and ground his fist into the teenager's head, "Don't go around thinking like that! There's no such thing as being perfect! Every battle you face is an opportunity to develop, even when you think you got it figured out."

Midoriya tenderly rubbed the sore spot that the blonde gave him and, when he peeked up at the taller man, he saw a hint of sadness in his red eyes. "Yeah...you're right…"

"That's more like it." Bryan grinned before moving away to stretch out. "Hey, so what's this whole training thing you do for? With that kind of power, I'd thought you'd be used to it by now."

"A-Ah..well," Midoriya looked away as he carefully worded his response. "You see, in my world, you have to have a special license to be a hero, and since we're still kids, we have to train constantly to make sure we're ready for the next villain."

"You can't just help people? That's dumb."

"Heh...kind of, but that's how things are and being a hero is my dream so I have to keep working hard to get to where I need to be." Midoriya grinned up at Bryan and added, "I'm getting close; one day I'll be the greatest hero."

Bryan looked down at the teenager; at first, he was confused, but then he smiled. "I haven't heard ambition like that in years! I like it!"

That caught Midoriya off guard as Bryan smiled at him. "When did you last hear it?"

Bryan shrugged, "It's been a long time, but I think it was when I was fifteen when Eveline said something like that."

"Eveline…?"

"Yeah," Bryan turned his gaze to the horizon and continued, "it was back before any of this happened. When everything was still okay and we could be kids. Eveline believed that she had the power to help everyone and she only hoped that she had the strength to do it."

Midoriya observed as Bryan wiped away a tear that threatened to fall from his red eyes. "How old was she?"

"Ten, and she had just been gifted Lostvayne by her father."

"Lost-what?"

"Lostvayne," Bryan turned back to Midoriya with a nostalgic look drawn over his face. "It was her father's sacred treasure that Bartra had given to him a long time ago. It's a demon sword, only the owner of it can use it. And I think that's one of the things that drove Guinevere off the edge…"

"Huh?" Midoriya wanted to ask for more details but Bryan ended the subject with a request to continue training. "O-Oh, sure, um…"

It was hard for Midoriya to get into the fight, so he asked Bryan to show him his unique power instead. Bryan was all too happy to comply which led to Midoriya feeling his body being pulled toward the blonde.

"Snatch: I can take physical objects from you as well as your strength, energy, or just stop you from moving. I don't even need to touch you." Bryan pulled Midoriya toward him, an act that caught the younger one off guard, however, he managed to regain himself and took the momentum to deliver a hard punch to the gut.

"Oof!" Bryan cried as Midoriya's fist collided with his stomach, "Nice, but you're open again!"

Grabbing Midoriya's outstretched forearm, Bryan pulled him closer to rebuild momentum before slamming Midoriya into the ground, creating a crater beneath both of them. Midoriya felt the earth break before he felt the pain.

Extraordinary power! He thought with a smile, I could learn a lot from these guys!

Mael, who was watching the fight, called it a tie between them on account that neither could outmatch the other just yet. Neither knew how long he had been watching them, but it didn't matter.

"Give it time, more practice will do you good." He turned to see how Drystan and Anna were faring, only to see that they were in a rock fight. "Those two…"

"Leave 'em," Bryan grinned as he wrapped his arm around Midoriya in half-hug, "let's try something new! What do you recommend, Deku?"

Midoriya gave the suggestion a thought and suggested that they practiced maneuvering through the air. "I've had some experience with it, but I'm not great."

"Without the ability to fly, it is hard to maneuver around. Especially if you got rubble flying with you!" Bryan glanced around and shrugged, "We could ask Drystan to help; he can control the earth and make obstacles for us to run through."

"But we need to have someone fighting us…"

"I can do that," Mael offered with a smile, "you've fought against each other already, try working together this time."

"Work together, huh? Like a partnership?"

"Exactly," The goddess nodded, "working together is essential to this kind of rescue. We're going to have many obstacles once we find Eveline."

"Yeah, you're right," Deku turned to Bryan and smiled, "Let's do this!"

"Alright!" The two hurried toward the rock fight and asked Drystan to help them with their training.

At first, Drystan was against helping them as he didn't want to do anything of the sort, but Anna managed to change his mind after promising to make him as many pies as he could eat if he did as he was asked. After a moment of arguing over the flavor of the pies that he wanted, he finally gave in.

They then had to come up with a plan on how to do the exercise. Drystan didn't participate in the conversation and Midoriya and Bryan weren't sure of how to proceed, so Mael pitched the idea of making it a race. He told Drystan to create a small labyrinth for the duo to run through; it needed to be uneven and somewhat sturdy since they were trying to imitate a real battle. With no time limit or even destination in mind, the goddess only told them to see how long they could outrun him until they called quits. He then summoned a small amount of his power and began bombarding them with energy blasts. He would blast them from every direction possible, not always to hit them. Sometimes he wanted to slow them down, other times he wanted to see if he could easily separate them.

With each attack, Midoriya and Bryan made sure to keep each other in mind; they did their best to not stray too far from the other's side and, should anything separate them (like the rock from one of Mael's blasts) it was their priority to find each other. They figured that being together in battle was important so they did their best to keep close even though it wasn't worth doing during this exercise.

"Mael's power is amazing!" Midoriya cried as he and Bryan overcame one of the goddess' attacks. "Are all goddesses like this?"

"Nah, Mael has a grace!" Bryan explained as he dodged some falling rocks. "Sunshine! His sun-based power follows the timing of the sun; if the sun's going up, so will his power."

"And it's the opposite when the sun goes down?"

"Yup!" The two dodged a wall that Drystan commanded to rise between them. They were now separated and they had two options; either they could try and breakthrough or find a way around.

"Keep going!" Midoriya cried, hoping that Bryan could hear him over the wall. "look for a weak point!"

* * *

_**Drystan's power comes from his mother Diane, the queen of Giants and Sin of Envy. They can control the earth through dance, essentially. But their power, while almost limitless, has its flaws. In a way though, having nature on your side increases your chances of survival in battle.**_

_**If you want to beat the earth, you have to know it's weaknesses. You also have to be a bit unconventional. Typically, we try to fight in the fields and valleys so there's less need for damage control, but we can't always be so lucky.**_

_**Think of how you can minimize the destruction and you'll find a way to beat Drystan.**_

* * *

Searching for weak points in the walls wasn't easy for Midoriya; Jirou could do it easily but not him. So how could he test the walls without expelling his energy? In moments like these, conservative was key, so what could he do?

He thought about it while he raced through the crumbling grounds. He had to assume that Drystan could easily fix any hole Midoriya made, but that might be giving Drystan too much credit. Eveline mentioned that Drystan wasn't great with his powers. He was still learning how to use it.

It's better than nothing! Midoriya gathered fair enough energy to perform an ordinary Detroit Smash and punched his way through the wall, making a clear hole for him to zip through. He flew through the hole, meeting Bryan as the blue-haired man was further behind thanks to a steady stream of energy blasts that slowed him down.

"Good to see you alive!" Bryan teased as they quickly took shelter from Mael's attacks. "Not to sound rude, but I thought this was a maneuvering exercise."

"Mael's changed his mind, I guess," Peeking his head out from their hiding spot, Midoriya saw Mael approach Drystan; the two over were talking and Midoriya assumed they were devising some sort of plan.

"Deku, Bryan!" Both of them poked their heads out, "how about we try something new?"

* * *

**_Mael is the only surviving archangel of the original Goddess clan. Only they were gifted Graces, just like the Ten Commandments were gifted their Commandments. His Grace is limited because of how powerful it is._**

**_He essentially has the power of the sun, but as you can guess, the sun can't shine all day. He has his weaknesses, few as they are. The larger his attacks, the less he can maneuver, that normally isn't an issue because those kinds of attacks are meant for a cluster of enemies. Still, the heat radiating from his body will slow you down if you're too close._**

* * *

What the group agreed upon was a five-minute race through the labyrinth; Flora and Anna would keep track of the time while Mael and Drystan were allowed to go all out on stopping the racing duo. They had to make it to the center of the Labyrinth before time ran out and, to mark the center, Flora placed a single sunflower as their 'flag' of sorts.

"Ready?" the girls called out, earning varying affirmative replies, "GO!"

Midoriya and Bryan shot out of their hiding spot, splitting to their decided paths. Mael and Drystan couldn't focus on both at once, so they were forced to split as well.

* * *

_"Mael's attacks are a bit much for me, but you didn't see that bothered," Midoriya noted as they discussed their plan of attack._

_"Pain tolerance gotta love it," Bryan laughed before adding, "Not to mention I used some of the loose boulders as shields. I flung them up to block him so I could get a clear path."_

_Midoriya nodded, that was a brilliant plan for something thought up on the fly. "So, how about this; when the girls say go, we split ways. I'll play chicken with Drystan and you with Mael. We'll try to meet at the ledge just up ahead and we can try a dual attack on them."_

_"Sounds like a plan!"_

* * *

Drystan cursed as Midoriya was quicker than he had anticipated, as the teenager had the advantage of speed while Drystan had to rely on his Creation to help him keep up, but Midoriya was counting on that. He hadn't used his fullest speed during that first run mostly because he was trying to conserve his strength, but now that he had a better plan, there was no need for it.

Keep him making more diversions, when it's time to strike, he should be too tired to fight with any real strength.

* * *

**_Magic is tricky: when we use it too much, we become exhausted but it's hard to get to that point for seasoned warriors. Those like my friends, however, are easier to exhaust. We weren't trained for battle, there never was a need for it because our childhoods were peaceful. That changed when Guinevere gained leadership over the Black Knights._**

**_Their experience is limited, but you've seen battle before right? Please, teach them too. If they are to fight for me, they're going against people who've spent every waking moment preparing themselves for war. Help them._**

* * *

Don't worry Eveline, your friends will make it through this. Midoriya zipped to the ledge, meeting Bryan there as they readied themselves for their attack.

"Two Minutes!"

"That's plenty of time!" Bryan grinned while he reached out to snatch Drystan, "PHYSICAL HUNT!"  
Midoriya focused on Mael and sped his way through the air. Mael wasn't as easy to drain as Drystan was, but that wasn't the point where he was concerned.

Midoriya stuck out his hand, his fist curled as he prepared his onslaught of attacks. Delaware Smash Air Force!

Mael easily avoided the attack, however, one of his wings did get hit by it. Though it didn't affect Mael's ability to fly, Midoriya noticed that injury did affect Mael as though he had struck a sensitive area.

* * *

_**Most goddesses now don't have many wings because those who survived the first Holy War weren't involved in the war. They were citizens, normal people, and they were never drafted into the war for any reason. Because of this, their wings are very sensitive. For someone like Mael, his smaller wings are like this but it's a particular spot, very hard to hit because he knows it there.**_

* * *

So it's there, at the joint of his wing. Midoriya grinned as he reached the injured goddess. With a swift kick, he performed a decent Shoot Style: St Louis Smash, though it didn't do much against him.

"Nice try," Mael grabbed Midoriya's calf and flung him away from the finishing line, though the teenager was caught by Bryan. However, even though their efforts didn't yield the exact end that they wanted, it still worked to their advantage as they did land near the end.

"Sixty seconds!"

"GO!" The two quickly headed toward the sunflower, hoping that they might reach it, though Drystan made one last attempt to stop them by encasing them in a trap. However, Midoriya sensing the rock closing in around them, used Detroit Smash at 8%, just enough to clear a path for him and Bryan.

"Five!"

The two were just within arms reach.

"Four!"

Mael and Drystan each tried to stop them; Drystan summoned smaller walls as his energy was weak from being worn down by the exercise while Mael, hardly fazed, used a moderately powerful attack on the duo.

"Three!"

"Just a little more!" they grinned as the flower was just right there.

"TWO!"  
Mael's attack landed behind the duo, sending them flying. Their bodies collided with a jagged wall of rock as the clock expired.

"ONE! TIME'S UP!" the girls cried with squeals and giggles. "Who won?"

Mael flew down to where the two ended up going, hoping that his attack prevented them from grabbing the flower. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. As they peeled themselves from the wall, in Midoriya's hand was the sunflower, unharmed somehow.

"I'll give you two credit, you're creative." Mael smiled as he extended his hand out to them.

"Thanks.." Midoriya groaned as he took the offered hand while Bryan walked it off with barely a limp.

"It wasn't a perfect plan," Bryan lamented as he watched Drystan slowly return the area to its former state. "But it was interesting. We should go over strategies sometime, Deku."

Midoriya nodded, though he was confused as to why Bryan called it interesting. "Don't you practice strategy?"

Bryan turned slightly, appearing more as if he were leaning back, while he cheekily grinned at the teenager and goddess. "Nah, our greatest strength is our complete and utter lack of teamwork!"

Both Midoriya and Mael stared at Bryan as he grinned and cheerfully walked away. Midoriya wondered how Bryan could confidently say that while Mael only questioned why Bryan would admit that aloud.

* * *

_Is there anything else I should know?_

**_A lot more, but for now, this will help you._**

_What about the others?_

**_I wasn't aware Flora had powers; last I saw her, she was depressed because she couldn't use the power that Fairies have. As for Anna, she and Bryan aren't that different as far as powers go. Personalities though, it's tricky._**

_And Zelda?_

**_Her powers are different from her parents; her mother can't survive in sunlight but Zelda can. She doesn't need to drink blood, I think she's also picky about the kind of blood she does drink. Other than that, she's no different from any powerful demon; you'd have to see in action to understand her._**

_What about Gowther and Merlin?_

**_Gowther and Merlin are the last of the Sins to still be active since Guinevere came into power. Gowther's a doll, created by a powerful wizard during the first holy war. Merlin is what she is, there's nothing else I can say about that isn't just repeating what I've already told you._**

_The last sins? What happened to the others? Where are your parents, by the way?_

**_Everyone else, minus the late Sin of Pride, is sealed away in a tomb. That's why Guinevere hasn't been opposed yet; the people with that power have been sealed away. I don't understand much of this myself…_**

_I see...just hang in there. We'll save you and then...then we can find a way to save your world._

* * *

_**A/N: **_Okay, chapter 5 has been mostly fixed. It's still not perfect but better than it was.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6: Eveline Liones**_

* * *

Several hours after the intense training with Mael, everyone regrouped in Merlin's study to hear what she and Zelda had managed to come up with as far as the plan was concerned. The jitters from the race still coursed through the girls as they went on and on about how cool it was and how they wanted to try something like that. Flora might have gone a bit overboard though, clinging to Midoriya and complimenting him on how strong he was.

"Flora, for the last time, you cannot throw yourself at people like this." Drystan barked as he peeled her off of a flustered Midoriya.

"That's not fair!" She cried as she frantically reached out for the teenager, much to her brother's annoyance and Midoriya's discomfort.

"You're making him uncomfortable, stop it."

As Flora continued to complain, Drystan threw her over his shoulder and moved them both as far away from Midoriya as they could be. It bothered Midoriya a bit, as he wasn't sure if Flora fawning over him was what Drystan hated or if he somehow believed Midoriya was to blame for Flora's behavior. He hoped that it wasn't the latter because he really didn't like Flora's attention being fixed on him, to begin with. She was a less violent version of Toga Himiko and that wasn't a compliment by his standards.

"Alright, let's settle down," Zelda ordered as she entered the room. Midoriya settled his gaze on the vampire and realized that she looked like death. With naturally pale skin, he would have thought that she couldn't get paler but she could, and the dark purple bags under her eyes told him that she hadn't slept after their talk last night. "we don't have a lot of time and I want this dealt with as soon as possible."

"What's the big rush?" Anna asked as she lazily draped herself across an unused table. The very sight of leisure seemed to upset the vampire princess as Zelda glared venomously at the blonde woman. Anna either ignored it or simply never saw it as she continued to be a carefree bimbo. "Last time you said we had time."

"And now we don't," Merlin added with a frown as she floated above the small crowd. Compared to Zelda, she seemed less distressed, but Midoriya caught a glimpse of a rapid twitching of the woman's left eye. "We have to get Eveline out of there by tomorrow morning or she'll be executed."

The room went silent for only a mere second as Merlin's statement was processed by the group. Once that moment of confusion and uncertainty passed, Flora tried to laugh it off as some kind of joke until the serious and avoidant expressions of Merlin and Zelda finally forced the denial to crumble. Everyone, minus Midoriya and Zelda, began asking a million questions all at once. Most of the questions were the same, only asked in a slightly different way, and Midoriya felt the fear creep in with each passing second.

"We got to calm them down…" Midoriya glanced at Zelda, noticing that she was a bit tenser than he thought she would have been. He wasn't sure if she looked like she wanted to kill everyone in the room or just breakdown and cry.

_Eveline, I think I need your help._

**_What? Why?_**

_Merlin's just told everyone about the execution and they're freaking out._ Midoriya glanced around, Merlin's attempts to calm everyone down wasn't working and she was using magic on these people. _C-Can you appear again? Show them you're okay because otherwise..._

Eveline fell silent, but he began to feel her just as he had the other day. It was slightly different this time, as last time he felt her enter his body; this time she was leaving him. He didn't reject the feeling, remembering that his acceptance of it was crucial and when he felt a warm glowing embrace wrap around him, he felt relief wash over him as he knew that she succeeded in presenting a complete spiritual version of herself.

He looked over his shoulder, ready to thank her, but his voice wouldn't come out as he took in the full form of the woman he had been talking to. Last time, he saw only her upper body and everything below the waist was gone; this time, every part of her was visible and he didn't realize how beautiful she truly was. His cheek flushed as he took in the long, flowing blonde hair that was more yellow than he remembered it being, the sad green eyes that were brighter than his, the shy and avoidant glance that she gave as she used her left hand to gather some of her hair and used it to cover her mouth. He previously compared Eveline to Yaoyorozu in terms of looks but he felt like he did a disservice to Eveline because she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

"_**You're looking at me funny…**_" Eveline said rather softly, though the sound of her voice startled everyone in the room. "_**A-Ah…**_"

The room fell silent; no one moved as they stared at her and the longer the silence went on, the more uncomfortable and shy the spirit became. She hid behind Midoriya, which was odd as she was taller than him.

Zelda was the first person to have noticed Eveline's spirit, and thus, was the first to hesitantly reach out for the blonde. "E-Eveline…?" The moment her fingertips touched the light, she recoiled as her fingers were burned.

"_**Sorry, but I'm using a lot of pure energy to do this, I didn't think it would hurt you Zel.**_"

Zelda looked up from her hand and a ghost of a smile was seen. "It really is you?"

Eveline cowered still but smiled back with more of the kindness that Midoriya had once seen. "_**Yes, this is a piece of me anyway.**_"

"A piece…?" Mael approached the figure and gently touched it; unlike the vampire, he was unaffected by the light and only recoiled so that he could move away to take in the young woman. "Eveline...your mother couldn't even do this…"

"_**Ah..well…**_" Eveline shied away and Mael finally took in the fact that Eveline was hiding behind Midoriya, "**_I-I should explain…_**"

Mael shook his head, smiling sadly as glanced between them. "No, you don't have to, I understand what happened."

Both Eveline and Midoriya were shocked by that admission and tried to pry for further information, but everyone else in the room had finally snapped out of their surprise and begun bombarding Midoriya and Eveline with questions. Merlin, thankfully, was prepared for handling any rowdiness and snapped her fingers, forcing a spell that muted their voices long enough for her to get their attention.

"I understand that this is quite exciting, but I'm insisting that we all calm down and continue ahead with our briefing. Eveline, why don't you stay for a bit?"

Eveline only nodded before asking for a moment to speak to everyone. As she was a spirit at the moment, Merlin's spell couldn't affect her, but she felt like asking anyway. Merlin wasn't opposed and conveniently chose to remove the spell she inflicted on everyone else simply because there was no need for it anymore.

"_**I'm sorry everyone, I am. But I'm happy to know that you are trying to help me and Izuku told me you were panicking so I…**_" Her voice failed her mid-sentence and it took her a moment to collect herself. With a soft but determined intake of breath, she continued. "_**I am safe, that much I can say is certain at the moment. It is true, Guinevere intends to execute me though it is, last I was told, scheduled to happen by this week's end if not sooner.**_"

"What's holding up the execution?" Merlin asked, "Do you know?"

Eveline shook her head, "_**I do not, but I believe it has to do with Zagan**_."

Midoriya, having never heard that name before, expressed a curiosity toward it. "Who's Zagan?"

"That," Merlin emphasized with a frown, "would be the human warlord I told you about the other day. He's always had an unhealthy infatuation toward Eveline so it makes sense why he might try to spare Eveline's life. I wholly doubt that he'll succeed if that is what's happening."

"If not him, who else might try to postpone this?" Mael mused aloud as he moved to the detailed layout of the escape plan that they had yet to go over. "Either way, we need to hurry. Guinevere's always been the type to rush things."

There seemed to be a tension that filled the room as Mael spoke, almost as if the confidence that Midoriya had seen earlier had faded and was replaced with uncertainty. Suddenly, everything that Eveline had previously told him made sense; these people before him (except for Mael, Merlin, and Gowther) were not warriors, they were kids. He didn't know how old they were, but as far as this goes, they were not trained for battle and therefore never fought for another or themselves. They weren't like him and his friends; they were in way over their heads. Midoriya lowered his head as he came to realize that he didn't even consider the truth behind Eveline's plea. He took it at face value.

"So, what's the plan?"

Midoriya's head shot up, seeing Bryan stand before the others with a hardened look on his face. His sister stood directly behind him; her head was down, but Midoriya could see tears falling down her chin.

"Bryan?"

"I let them take you," he muttered angrily, his expression twisting as he spoke, "I should have stopped them, but I didn't because I was scared."

Anna, who had nodded along with everything her brother had said, looked up and added, "We've left you there for so long….We should take responsibility for our cowardice!"

"**_Anna…_**"

"Zelda's been the only one to try and help you over the years!" Anna snapped, "We didn't do anything! We hid until we couldn't hide. Even then, what did we do but be dead weight for our parents and now they're gone too!"

_Years?_ Midoriya glanced around the room and found that everyone was avoiding looking at Eveline. Shame, regret, even anger was what he could see as they all focused elsewhere in the room. _They left her imprisoned for years?_

Before he could ask anything, the young goddess let out a soft sigh. He turned back to her and she smiled rather sadly at the floor.

"_**If you want to blame anyone, blame Guinevere,**_" she whispered, "**_None of this would have happened if it wasn't for her. But...even knowing that I cannot bring myself to hate anyone. Not even my friends who say they abandoned me._**"

Eveline took a step toward Bryan and Anna, reaching out and gently caressing their cheeks. She made them look at her, made them see that there was a pure, honest truth behind her words. To Midoriya, it was incredible to witness.

"_**All of you matter to me, and I know that I matter to you. I never once blamed you, nor believed that my time in prison was your fault. Besides,**_" she smiled as sweetly as she could, her green eyes twinkling with tears of her own. "_**we're all cowards deep down. It's nothing to be ashamed of.**_"

She pulled away from her friends and retreated to Midoriya. She then smiled at him and pulled him into a hug. "_**Izuku, I asked you to help them be ready for battle, and now I'm asking for another favor if you're willing to humor me.**_"

Midoriya nodded, "Anything."

"_**Teach them to be heroes, just like you and your friends.**_"

* * *

Midoriya sat alone in one of Camelot's many courtyards; after their conversation with Eveline's spirit, the group finally discussed their rescue plan and their plan would be put into action by tomorrow morning. It was short notice, but with the execution lingering over their heads, it was agreed that the sooner they saved her, the better. However, there were still some things that Midoriya wanted to privately muse about.

Namely, Eveline's wish for him to teach her friends to be heroes; it was a partially weird request, but he forced himself to try to dissect the meaning of it after his last mistake. He thought about what being a hero might have meant to Eveline and how he could teach that ideal to her friends. Of course, he didn't think that he could do such a thing, but effort counted and, given that she and her friends would be going back with him to his world, he could have his classmates help him with it.

_But I wonder what exactly she meant by it because I doubt her understanding of heroism is the same as mine._ He let out a sigh, hardly noticing that the air had gotten chillier. _Maybe I shouldn't focus on that too much._

A sudden and unusual breeze hit him and Midoriya glanced around, fearing that someone might have been watching him. He stood up and was about to leave so that he may return to his room, but was stopped by Zelda and Mael.

"Good evening, Deku," Mael smiled down at the teenager and Midoriya if he should feel worried or on edge. "Mind if we talk?"

The tone Mael used suggested that Midoriya might be in trouble or that trouble was looking for him and he didn't want to deal with anything new. However, he wasn't in the position to refuse Mael, especially when the goddess knew something that Midoriya would like to have shared.

"Sure…"

Zelda didn't participate in the discussion, seemingly only there to fulfill an obligatory purpose (though he didn't know what that might be). Mael, on the other hand, asked him a thousand questions about his connection with Eveline; how long had it been active, what sparked it, what he and Eveline used it for, and so on. Midoriya answered every question as best he could, though he was growing more and more confused by each one. Mael didn't give him a chance to ask anything until the silver-haired goddess was satisfied.

"I know that it must have been confusing," Mael seated himself on one of the many marble benches and slouched ever so slightly. "What I said earlier about me already knowing what happened."

"Yeah...it was…" Midoriya felt a bit uncomfortable just standing beside Mael and decided to take a seat beside him. "Um...would you be willing to tell me about this link?"

Mael sat up a bit, confused by the request. "Eveline never told you?"

Midoriya shook his head, "No, in fact, she told me that she hadn't clue herself."

"Oh?" Zelda moved slightly, "That's not unusual, but I thought that she did, given that she offered to explain."

"I mean, she could have meant explaining that she is tied to me, despite not knowing how." Admittedly, he wasn't sure either, but he wanted to believe everything Eveline had told him thus far.

Mael nodded and looked up at the stars, "You're probably right. These were things we never bothered to teach her during her childhood. But I owe you an explanation."

"Me?"

Mael nodded again and smiled sadly, "You see, I know why the link exists and I tried to sever it when it first was made."

Midoriya was taken back by that but before he could question Mael further, another strong gust of wind went by and this time Midoriya knew something was wrong. He stood up and glanced around the area; though he saw nothing out of the ordinary, he felt something was wrong.

"Something's here…" he muttered softly, quiet enough that the wind drowned him out but the two with him heard him and they immediately readied themselves for a confrontation.

They waited for a minute, the tension in the air grew with each passing second until they relaxed. Midoriya wondered what it was that had caused the hairs on the back of his neck to rise, only to spot something in the darkness.

"Who's there!?" Midoriya called the shadow, "Show yourself!"

Though the shadow did not speak, it did move and Midoriya knew that whoever was there wasn't anyone who was attached to their group. Mael and Zelda must have thought the same thing as they turned to where the shadow was and Mael instantly recognized the shadow.

"Both of you! Get back!" Mael pushed both Midoriya and Zelda behind him, just in time to take the brunt of the attack. "Gah!"

"Mael!"

"Lord Mael!" Zelda cried as she caught him, both of them falling to the ground as Midoriya moved in front of them. "Lord Mael, are you okay?"

Mael shook his head, "Sound the alarms, it's one of the Black Knights!"

"Black Knights?" Midoriya kneeled beside the injured goddess, making sure he wasn't gravely injured.

"Guinevere's knights, just like the Seven Deadly Sins are Eveline's." Zelda quickly explained as she moved away from Mael. "They serve Guinevere and sometimes Zagan."

"So if they're here…" _They must know what's going on!_

"Fufu~!" the shadow giggled as it moved away from the trio. "Don't bother with the alarm, or I'll shred you to pieces!"

Midoriya positioned himself in front of Mael and Zelda, willing to enter the fight to give them time to alert the others if they chose to. Admittedly, given that he wasn't familiar with the Black Knights, he didn't know if he should encourage defiance or not. What if they got hurt because of him? But then again, they seemed familiar with them, he should leave that choice to them for now.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Midoriya called out to the shadow.

"Heh, you don't know me? What a shame," the shadow didn't make any attempt to move toward the light until the alarm sounded somehow. "Oh? Looks like I've been spotted. Oh well."

As the shadow moved to escape, Merlin appeared and caught the demon in a spell she called Perfect Cube. It was here that Midoriya got a good look at the woman; she was tall and thin with ungodly pale skin and a dark blue, skin-tight outfit. He likened the outfit to that of a leotard with most of the parts removed so that it was more of a crop top and high-waisted boy shorts with a thin strip of cloth that connected the top to the bottom. He saw more skin than clothes and her hair was a vibrant blue or purple; he couldn't tell honestly.

"Damn, you're still a hard one to outsmart." The demon woman groaned with a sinister grin.

"Can't say the same about you, Kasdeya," Merlin smirked lazily, "however, I'm afraid I can't let you go this time."

The grin faltered, "Interesting...And why not?"

Merlin smiled a little more and tried to reason that Kasdeya had broken the promise the Guinevere made with Arthur. However, the demon wasn't buying it and she merely gifted them a knowing smile before somehow breaking the Perfect Cube with only the sway of her hips. The act surprised everyone, especially Merlin, who was taken back, maybe even horrified by it.

"Well, I think I have justified my violation well with this," the succubus stated in a singsong tone, "I believe that Guinevere shall hear of this and I would expect a personal visit from her soon if I were you."

Merlin attempted to demand an answer, but the demon didn't humor them with so much as a wink before she disappeared and fear quickly settled throughout everyone. They knew that they needed to act now or never.

* * *

A/N: Hello everyone, sorry for not being active. The lockdown stuff is just killing my desire to do anything; I legit just want to sleep and eat and it is upsetting me! I don't even want to play games, I'm sad.

But despite the mental struggle this lockdown has on me, I want everyone reading this to know that I do not intend to leave this story unfinished. I will be writing it to the end, it just will take some time and considering I'm planning for this to go on for, at least, 30 chapters I need to be careful to not rush anything.

Also, I have a DeviantArt page where I show what my OCs look like so if you hate how I describe them, you can go there and see them for yourself. My username there is Phantom-Tigress, from there you should be able to find me by looking for Eveline or any of my OCs.

Until next time! Bye!


	7. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7: The Black Knights Part I**_

* * *

Midoriya and Zelda impatiently waited as Merlin opened a portal in the demon prison where Eveline was being held. Mael and Gowther were on their way to a special altar that was within the druid's land which was to be their escape route from the prison. Camelot would be targeted soon enough; it was in their best interest to begin their escape before Guinevere or her Black Knights could stop them. Bartra, Flora, and Drystan were sent away to ready the portal so that they could go to Midoriya's world, hopefully erasing their trail. Merlin admitted that she doubted the plan's success now that Kasdeya was suspicious but they might still have a chance.

"Of the four Black Knights, Kasdeya isn't the brightest," Merlin explained as she summoned the small portal, "We might be lucky and they won't heed anything she says."

"Wishing big there," Zelda admitted with a long sigh as she tied her sword to her hip. She turned to Midoriya, who only armed himself with a sword for Eveline, having insisted that he could fight without a weapon. "Alright, we both know the plan?"

"I'm going for Eveline, and you the boys," He nodded with an assuring smile, while in his head, he kept Eveline updated on what had happened. It was, in his mind, a better idea than just showing up and having her ask a million questions. "Your brothers need to get out no matter what, so don't wait up for us. Eveline and I will get out one way or another."

Zelda wasn't okay with his ease toward the situation but she didn't have a moment to comment on it as Merlin had the portal open for them.

"You have, maybe, ten minutes to find them and get them out," Merlin turned away from the portal and smiled sadly at them, "from then on, it's straight to Midoriya's world. I bid you goodbye for now."

Zelda opened her mouth to say something, but she promptly closed it and just nodded with a hardened expression. Midoriya didn't judge; he hadn't a clue what Zelda was feeling and he knew from experience that in moments like this, pestering her would be detrimental to their goal. He could ask later if he wanted to; for now, they had people to save.

The two of them hurried through the portal; Merlin wasted no time closing it once they were through, leaving them to do their mission as they pleased. Zelda thrust a small piece of paper into his hand and urged him to follow it before abandoning him. He quickly opened up the crumpled paper and then stuffed it into his pocket.

_Eveline, guide me to your cell._

Eveline's response was swift but he noticed that her voice was faint. Was she hurt? Did something happen to her? He didn't ask but the fear of the worst slowly crept into his thoughts as he followed both Eveline's direction and the vague map he had received.

* * *

Zelda hurried down a spiral staircase, searching through every cell she came across for Tristan and Percival. So far, all the guards were missing which didn't strike her as strange since guards weren't typically needed in the prison. Escape was nearly impossible. Besides with Eveline being the only prized prisoner, it made sense that if there were any guards on duty, they would be watching her.

But then again, she had no idea why the twins were imprisoned, to begin with.

Eveline, when they had seen her, theorized that Guinevere had wanted to make an example out of her so that the two boys would learn their place in her new government, but Zelda wasn't too sure. The boys weren't the strongest of their families; Tristan's magic was unpredictable and Percival had all the vulnerabilities of a vampire, but none of the strengths. What use could she have for them and what threat could they pose?

They were the most troublesome princes in all of Britannia! Who would rally behind them? And what could they do even if they could amass followers? Not only that, but they were just ten years old; nothing more than children.

What purpose could they serve to a corrupt ruler? That was the question that unsettled the vampire princess the most because it was the only one she couldn't answer. She couldn't see them rebelling against Guinevere, but as pawns, there were possibilities that they could fulfill depending on how twisted the second Liones princess was. It was the unknown that made Zelda frantic; she couldn't let anything happen to her little brother and cousin.

She stopped her search, only to take a break and think over what she knew about the prison's layout and what Eveline had told her. Eveline's cell was located in the lowest pits, and she could hear the twins crying at night which meant they had to be near Eveline or were somewhere above her. She figured above since they weren't capable of escaping on their own and those cells were perfect for scaring them when the guards watching Eveline would switch shifts. But what floor could they be on?

At a guess, I would say they are two floors above me. But I cannot be sure.

That was all Eveline could say and it didn't help as Zelda had searched through every cell she came across and nothing was there. She had to be on the right floor because Merlin knew roughly where Eveline was and sent them as close to her as she could.

What am I missing? Zelda thought as she carefully observed the cells around her. They should be here unless they were moved and…

Zelda froze; what if they were moved? No, not moved; they were still there, they had to be. But where?

"Well, well, well," A slight yelp escaped Zelda as she heard a deep, growling voice come from behind her. "I guess that dimwit wasn't fibbing at all."

Zelda wanted to curse aloud but refrained. The person behind her was unmistakably Azazel, the fourth of the Black Knights and certainly not someone she wanted to get tangled up with. While all four Knights were powerful, Azazel had a special advantage in the form of his missing right arm which he had replaced with a black slithering limb of pure demonic energy. This tentacle-like limb was quick and its reach extended further than most long-range attacks; in a tight corridor like this, she had no room to escape it.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?"

Before Zelda could do anything, she felt his armored hand wrap itself around her neck, squeezing her throat just enough to let her know that the wrong move will end her life. His right limb extended outward to one of the cells, opening it so that a pair of guards could bring out the boys.

"Ah!" Zelda moved toward them but was restrained by the neon blue-haired Knight.

"Remember what predicament you're in before charging off like that," he teasingly whispered into her ear. "If you make another wrong move, I'll have them killed and we don't want that, right?"

Unsure if she should speak, Zelda nodded but kept her eyes fixed on the boys. If Azazel says her cooperation will keep the boys alive, she'll believe him but she didn't trust that he or those guards might try something.

"Good, let's discuss the situation as it stands; Kasedya told us you were planning something dirty at Camelot, possibly trying to get Eveline out of prison. As you might expect, Geunievere and Layla are on their way to Camelot as we speak. So that leaves me and the dimwit to watch out for you. So, what do you make of this?"

Zelda gritted her teeth, she didn't know what to say. "I don't know, what do you want me to say?"

"Are you breaking Eveline out?"

"Are you asking if I am breaking her out or if there was a plan to get her?"

"Both."

"I am getting the boys." She answered, knowing that the truth would confuse the half-demon.

The smile that she could see from her peripheral faded into a frown. "Was there a plan to get Eveline?"

"Of course."

"You say you're here for the boys…"

"I am."

Azazel did not speak for a minute, Zelda could only assume he was thinking over what she had said, only to then begin chuckling to himself.

"Clever, Merlin. Send someone else after the big game," he frowned again, "In that case, I have a proposition for you, Lady Zelda."

* * *

By the time Midoriya found Eveline's cell, he felt something was wrong. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew something or someone was waiting for him. He kept himself vigilant as he broke off the cell's door while Eveline weakly looked up at him; she was quick to tell him that she wasn't injured but merely exhausted which confused him.

"Can you walk?" he asked, extending out his hand for her to take. "Let me help you."

Just as Eveline took his hand, Midoriya forcefully lifted her and punched her in through the gut, exposing that her body was composed of a strange grey substance. The body quickly melted around his arm and in front of him was Kasdeya with an unconscious Eveline pinned against the wall by something that resembled a snake. He quickly noted that Kasdeya's right leg had a huge gash that oozed out a mixture of blood and a black substance.

"I don't understand how you saw through my toy," Kasdeya pouted as if she were a disgruntled child before adding with a stiff shake of her head. "but it doesn't matter, I'm not letting you take this one away from here. No sir."

Midoriya took a step back, knowing that he shouldn't be so close to the enemy while Eveline was under her custody. He needed to analyze the situation and come up with a way to deal with Kasdeya and rescue Eveline without too much commotion.

"I didn't get the chance to properly introduce myself earlier," Kasdeya lazily leaned back, curling herself into a relaxed position as she floated before him. "My name's Kasdeya, the Femme Fatale of the Black Knights. It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Broccoli Head."

"Br-Br-Broccoli Head?" Of all the insults he had ever heard in his life, that certainly was a new and unwelcome one.

"I mean look at that hair," Kasdeya giggled as she forced herself into his personal space, playfully toying with the curls of his hair. "it's all curly and green, who even has this kind of hair! You look like a baby!"

Midoriya couldn't help but get flustered by that comment; did he look like a baby?! Had everyone thought that about him? Even Eveline? Wait, why was he thinking about that and not about the situation?

"Don't try to fight it, okay?" Midoriya looked up at the demon, who smiled down at him with a strange vacant expression. "The more you fight, the more I have cut up that cute face."

Midoriya reprimanded himself for the slip and forcibly shoved Kasdeya from himself. _Stay focused, I don't know if that was a quirk like power or just some stupid tactic I fell for but I'm not letting it get me this time!_

"Hmph!" Kasedya huffed as she pulled herself back toward Eveline, "What a shame, I was hoping that I wouldn't have to do this."

Kasdeya reached out and grabbed a fist full of Eveline's hair, yanking the goddess's head upward. Midoriya could hear her neck make a cracking sound as her eyes weakly fluttered open. At first, she didn't seem to register what pain she felt or what was happening around her until her eyes focused on him. After that, Kasdeya yanked her head again and yelp escaped the blonde.

"Wakey, Wakey, sweetie," the demoness squealed as she shook Eveline's head, "it's time to play!"

Eveline tried to jerk her head away and out of the demon's grip, but failed. Midoriya wanted to help, but he realized that the strange thing wrapped around Eveline would move each time Kasdeya did something. He figured it was controlled by her but he hadn't thought of how she controlled it.

_Is it like a puppet?_

**_It's her familiar!_ **Midoriya blinked a couple of times, before realizing that Eveline had spoken to him through their link. **_It came from her leg, the tattoo! Aim there!_**

Midoriya didn't have to be told twice. Without a moment of hesitation, Midoriya kicked the large gash on the demon's leg, earning a loud screech and the beast uncoiled itself from Eveline. The creature (now revealing itself to truly be a large snake) threw itself into the gash and the bleeding ceased. However, Kasdeya withered on the ground in agonizing pain, screaming in a language that he didn't know.

"It was actually a part of her!?" Midoriya yelped as he took the exhausted Eveline into his arms.

"It's a special kind of bond; she lets it live as a piece of her," Eveline groaned as she leaned against him. "Hurry, we can lock her in."

"Right," Midoriya pushed Eveline out of the cell and quickly locked the door before Kasdeya could get up. She tried to stop them, but her leg prevented her from doing anything beyond a weak crawl. "Let's go!"

"You brats! I'll kill you both!" The cry of the disgraced demoness echoed throughout the jail, alerting the other guards who were posted outside the prison.

The duo could hear the commotion from above them and it took all of Midoriya's willpower to not panic as he pulled Eveline to where he and Zelda were supposed to meet. However, from the sounds of the stomping feet above them, both of them were worried that they'd be caught before then, so they took refuge with a cell that was tucked away from sight. The guards ran right past them, never bothering to look to the side to see if anyone was there.

"Sorry," Midoriya whispered as he pressed Eveline and himself into the cold wall. "You're not hurt right?"

Evelien weakly smiled and shook her head. "No, I'm not hurt. Kasdeya's familiar can drain its victim's energy when it wraps around their body. It's a good thing she's not skilled or neither of us would have made it out."

Midoriya merely smiled and nodded. If Eveline said she was okay, he'd believe her. For now, they needed to find Zelda and get out of this place.

* * *

Zelda and the boys found Eveline and Midoriya stumbling down the hall; Eveline was too exhausted to walk at this point but she refused to let Midoriya carry her on his back.

"What the hell happened?" Zelda asked as she tried to take Eveline from Midoriya though the blonde rejected her aid.

"Kasdeya roughed up Eveline before I showed up." Midoriya explained, "Let's leave this place before we get caught."

"Right."

The boys hurried over to Eveline, asking why she was hurt and what happened to her, but Zelda quickly shushed them and pulled everyone into an empty cell. She pulled out a small marble and tossed it up into the air so that it hit the roof of the cell before hitting the floor. The portal opened, Mael and Gowther smiled at them from the other side while they quickly made their escape.

Once they closed it again, Mael took Eveline into his arms and healed her enough for her to walk on her own.

"Thank you, Mael," Eveline smiled as she leaned against him for a second longer. "I owe you for this."

"Don't think of it that way," he smiled as he hugged her tightly, almost afraid to let her go. "You mean the world to us and we can't let them get you again."

Eveline lowered her head but nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I guess so."

Mael didn't seem to take her response as something positive, as he worriedly glanced down at her, but he couldn't dwell on it. There was more to be done for they were not out of the fire yet.

"Take a break for now," he said as he pulled away from Eveline to address the others in the room. "We will work on getting you to where the rest of the group is."

"Where are we going?" Young Tristan asked, anxiously glancing between his sister and cousin.

Percival nodded along with Tristan's question, before asking their other pressing question.

"Who's this guy?"

"Is he a pervert?"

"Why was he with Evie?"

"Hey, hey, Zelda! What's up with him?"

"He better not do anything dirty to Evie!"

"He's not a Holy Knight, right? He doesn't look older than us!"

"He's short, just like dad! I bet he's as irresponsible too!"

Midoriya was, rightfully, horrified by the boys' remarks and Zelda and Eveline were no less outraged by their brothers' tactless questions. Eveline tried to explain to them that Midoriya was her friend and that he was a gentleman while Zelda took to smacking them upside the head.

"He saved Eveline! Is this how you treat someone who saves your family?!"

Percival ceased his remarks but Tristan, stubborn as ever, declared that he would not be fooled. His father was one of the Seven Deadly Sins and he was the most irresponsible drunkard in the whole world. By that standard, Midoriya couldn't be any different.

Both Eveline and Zelda were mortified and began to scold the young prince, to avail. Tristan was convinced that Midoriya was nothing but trouble. He vowed to make sure that Midoriya never got the chance to do anything perverted to his sister or cousin.

Unable to mentally handle the chaos that was Tristan, Midoriya excused himself from the room for a second; now that it was getting closer to the end of the plan as he knew it, he needed to think of what he could do to help his new friends once they got to his world. He doubted that he could convince UA to let them stay, but where else could they go? 1-A's dorms still had some vacant rooms, but that still depended on whether or not the school would let these people stay.

"I'll have to convince them," he said softly to himself, "I just don't know how I'm gonna do that."

"Do what?" Midoriya jumped as Eveline's soft voice whispered into his ear.

"Ah…!" Midoriya turned sharply, his face pale as Eveline giggled. "E-Eveline…"

"Sorry about that," She smiled apologetically as she twirled some of her blonde hair with her finger. "I didn't think I'd scare you."

"Surprised is more like it," he mumbled as he turned away, "what are you doing out here? I thought you'd be with your brother."

Eveline shrugged, "He's fine. Zelda's got a handle on them. Besides, I want to talk about going to your world."

Midoriya's body stiffened, "H-Huh..!?"

"Don't huh me, I knew from the second you told me you were brought to this world that Merlin wanted to send me with you. Why else would she bring you here?"

Midoriya lowered his head in minor embarrassment. He should have considered who he was talking to before playing dumb. "Yeah, I guess you're right…"

The two of them fell into momentary silence before he confessed to what was on his mind. Eveline, without needing to hear much of the circumstances, understood the issue and assured him that they would be fine.

"But I can't promise that you'll have somewhere to live and, plus, for me to help you guys, it would be better if you stayed at UA."

"Don't worry about it," Eveline smiled, "I'm sure we can figure something out. Besides, your school isn't under any obligation to help us so harm is being done if they refuse to take us in."

"But-"

Eveline gently pressed her finger against Midoriya's lips, shushing him while she merely smiled and promised him that they would find a way to help each when the time came. "For now, let's focus on leaving together, okay?"

Midoriya, his freckled cheeks flushed a bright red, nodded, and quickly looked away. He didn't understand why the gesture set his heart fluttering, but he couldn't deny that he liked it. It reminds me of when I met Uraraka on our first day….

* * *

It took Mael and Gowther longer than expected to get the escapees to the rest of the group which had agitated Zelda a bit, though Eveline kept her from starting a full-blown fit. During that time, Percival had attempted to acquaint himself with Midoriya, though Tristan prevented them from having any sort of meaningful conversation. The young blond feared that Midoriya might corrupt his cousin and would pull Percival away every time he thought the other got too close.

When the portal was done, the small group found the others all hunched over the device that would take them away from this world. They were all intently working on the contraption, not even realizing that the others were now joining them until Tristan spoke up.

"What are you guys even doing?" the young blond asked, sounding just like a bratty prince. The obnoxious question earned the young boy a hard knuckle grind atop of his head from Zelda while Eveline merely smiled sheepishly at her brother's poor manners.

Everyone, except for Drystan and Bryan, eagerly raced over to hug the arriving party, expressing how happy they were that everyone was alive and well. Mael and Gowther moved away so that they didn't get caught in the stampede. Flora, in particular, wept as she held onto the blonde goddess, crying about how she missed Eveline and hoped that they might never have to be forced apart again. Midoriya only smiled as this happened, having received multiple thanks and appreciative gestures for his help. Bartra was the only one who was the most vocal in his appreciation.

"If ever you need anything, I will do what I can to help."

Midoriya accepted the offer with a slightly embarrassed smile, "I appreciate it, but I'd hate to burden you with anything."

Bartra shook his head and assured the teenager that nothing could be a burden to him at this point in his life. The old king then turned to his grandchildren who were eager for his attention as they hadn't seen him in so long. Eveline remained with her friends and relatives for a moment before pulling away, joining Midoriya's side in a move that wasn't missed by Bryan.

"It took you long enough," Bryan grinned cheekily as Midoriya and Eveline drew closer to the machine he and Drystan were working on. "Here I thought we had been caught."

Midoriya only shrugged, "In a way, I guess you can say that."

"Hm?"

"Kasdeya told the other knights about your plans," Eveline sighed as she knelt to gently pat Drystan's back, "Before Izuku showed up, she told me that Layla and Guinevere were on their way to Camelot."

"Shit…" Drystan softly cursed before standing up, "Well, we're going to be far from her reach soon enough. The machine Merlin invented is ready, just needs to warm up."

Midoriya absentmindedly nodded along before carefully inspecting the machine. While he hadn't spent much time in the support department to understand the basics of engineering, he could figure out that this machine seemed exceptionally advanced for people who lived in a medieval world and thrived off of the use of magic. Still, he had to remember what Drystan just said; Merlin invented it and Midoriya, in the roughly four days he knew her, figured she was this world's equivalent of Mei Hatsume.

"So what's the plan?" Midoriya asked, "If our enemies are at Camelot, what's the likelihood that they might find us?"

Eveline nodded in agreement with Midoriya, "Where exactly are we? How far from Camelot?"

"Pretty far," Bryan answered, "We're near the mountains by Edinburgh. Merlin said that Guinevere wouldn't think of looking for us here."

Midoriya shook his head, "I don't know, that Kasdeya seemed convinced that they have the upper hand. By the way-"

Midoriya never got the chance to finish his sentence as the machine crackled to life and a whirlwind of electricity began to converge within the makeshift center of the wooden dome. The smell of burning wood was filling the air.

At first, the electricity was unstable, prompting the group of four to quickly step away from it. However, within minutes it began to stabilize, creating a spherical orb that began to expand. It looked like something straight out of a science-fiction movie.

As I thought, this is too advanced for them, Midoriya wished he knew more about Merlin or had the opportunity to have a conversation with her but he remembered what Drystan had told him about her. _I wonder…. If Eveline's been to my world before then Merlin has to have gone there at some point too. Then again…._

"It's almost ready!" Bryan called out the others; the group cheered as the path to freedom was almost open to them.

Mael moved through the small crowd and approached both Eveline and Midoriya. Though he was smiling, both of them could sense that something was wrong and Midoriya wondered if it had to do with their interrupted conversation from earlier.

"Mael? Is something wrong?" Eveline softly whispered as he came within a foot of them.

"No," he said with a shake of his head, "I want to give you something before you leave."

"Huh?" Midoriya was confused and a bit bothered that he wasn't going to get to know about that link between himself and Eveline. He was about to demand answers when Mael, with a sad, but understanding smile, reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, ornate bottle.

"There's not enough time for me to explain, so I had Gowther put everything I wanted to tell you within this."

Eveline gently took the bottle and inspected it, "A memory bottle?"

"That's right, with your link only one of you would need to drink it."

Eveline gave the bottle back to Midoriya, who was still perplexed by it. "Everything is in this?"

"Everything that I knew," Mael turned slightly to glance over his shoulder at the eager group. They were all oblivious to what the trio was discussing. "It should be enough for you to figure out the rest."

Midoriya wasn't sure why he felt robbed, but he put the bottle into his pocket nevertheless. It felt like a cheap way to explain something that seemed important, but Mael had to stay here and there might never be an opportunity for them to talk again. It was better than nothing.

"We'll be keeping Guinevere at bay until you can return," Mael gently patted their shoulders, a gesture that Midoriya wasn't sure he appreciated at the moment. It felt like this might be their final goodbye and he didn't like it. It also felt uncomfortably familiar. "Take care and try to not get into any trouble."

The two only nodded before Mael pulled away, returning to Gowther who had been watching the exchange the entire time. Neither Midoriya nor Eveline knew what to say to each other afterward, so they focused on what everyone else was doing while trapped in their own thoughts.

The group watched at the portal continued to take shape, growing larger and stabilizing further. It wasn't long before it was ready for them to use and they could see the All Might decor that filled Midoriya's dorm. Midoriya wanted to feel embarrassed as the others gazed upon his room, but instead, he felt a monumental relief at seeing something familiar.

"Is that where we'll be staying?" Drystan cried as Bryan began ordering everyone into a line. "It's small."

"Don't worry about it," Bryan laughed, "we'll figure something out, but first, let's get everyone out of here."

At first, it was suggested that Midoriya and Eveline go through first, but Eveline felt that the twins should go with Midoriya. Naturally, Tristan was against it. So Midoriya suggested that Zelda and the twins go first, followed by Eveline and Bartra. Midoriya, given that he saw this as no different from his hero training, believed he should help escort the other through before going back in himself. And so, that's what they went with.

"Be careful," Bryan said as he helped Zelda through, "looks like there's a small drop."

Zelda only nodded as she went through successfully. She did jump slightly, but past that, she was through.

"Boys, you're next." Bryan picked up Tristan, allowing Midoriya to pick up Percival, and they carefully handed the boys to Zelda one at a time.

From there, Eveline and Bartra made their way through with only a minor concern as the electricity faded for a second before resuming as it had before.

"We're moving too slow," Midoriya noted aloud, "Can't we let more through?"

Drystan shook his head, "Merlin said we could do two at a time at most, or else it will distort the machine."

"It's already losing power," Gothwer noted, "Hurry up and get the girls thro-"

"Kasdeya!" Eveline and Zelda cried from the other side.

The remaining group members turned quickly, just in time to Flora fall to the ground, covered in blood with a gaping hole through her stomach. Drystan immediately went to his sister's side, crying out her name in the hopes that she might respond. She didn't respond and, as he cradled the limp body, he knew that this wasn't some trick of Kasdeya's; Flora was dead.

"You thought you could get away so easily?!" The blue-haired demon growled. "I'm already pissed off so don't try anything."

Midoriya quickly glanced around, Anna was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Anna?"

Kasdeya rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers, "That brat? With me now."

From behind the demoness, Anna appeared, appearing different than she had been before. Her eyes were glazed over, but tears fell from them. Her face looked deathly pale, her mouth was slightly ajar, and the way she moved was more like she was being controlled by strings than fluid movements. As the young woman suddenly lunged at her weeping cousin, Midoriya caught a glimpse of what looked like a snake's bite on Anna's neck. It looked like a new wound, perhaps only a few days old.

"Anna, Stop!" Bryan cried as he jumped to push her away from Drystan. "What's gotten into you?"

"She's my puppet now." The demoness moved and Anna's body copied her. "Sadly, I can only use her body, but that's good enough for me."

"You're sick!" Mael barked as he positioned himself in front of the portal which was beginning to fade. "Damn it! Midoriya, you have to leave."

"Ah!" Midoriya turned to go through the portal, despite his desire to stay and fight, but Anna was quicker. She blocked his path and with a solid kick to the chest, sent him flying away from the portal.

"You're not going anywhere! Unless you want Eveline to watch you die a slow death on her behalf, I suggest that you hand her over." Kasdeya manipulated Anna's body, forcing her to pin down Midoriya. "Come on, Eveline. Don't let your friends die for you."

"No!" Eveline tried to push herself through the portal but Zelda and Bartra forced her down. "Please, stop!"

"Hmph, you can try harder than that, Evie." Kasdeya summoned a stranger whip from somewhere and used it on Bryan and Mael, who tried to attack her. "Is that all? They must not really matter to you."

Eveline struggled against her cousin and grandfather, crying and clawing her way toward the men who were fighting for her. "Please, I don't want this! Just let me go!"

"Eveline, please." Zelda gripped the blonde tighter, so much so that she was certain that Eveline was bruising under her grip.

"It's not like you can come back!" Mael shouted back toward Eveline, "That portal only works one way!"

Eveline clawing ceased, Midoriya somehow sensed that she was beyond horrified to learn that she was now stuck in his world. And soon she was about to be stuck without him if he didn't get back over there; the portal was beginning to close!

"Deku!" Midoriya felt his body being pulled toward Bryan, who was sprinting full speed at the portal."We can make it."

Gowther and Mael covered for the duo; they already knew that there was no way they would be able to peel Drystan away from his sister's body. If Bryan's the only one of the fairy halfbreeds to make it through, then so be it.

Kasdeya didn't make any attempt to stop Bryan and Midoriya. She seemed rather pleased with herself. "I guess I lose, for now."

Bryan paused just as he shoved Midoriya through the portal. She was just gonna stop? Just like that? That wasn't like her at all.

"Don't get too full of yourselves," She laughed as she summoned Anna to her, "We'll get Eveline back and I'll be reserving a special punishment for you Broccoli Head."

The demoness disappeared into the night, leaving them confused. But Bryan didn't waste a second more as he passed through the portal alone. Though their acquaintance had been brief, Midoriya could see that Bryan was deeply angered by the abduction of his sister.

"We'll be destroying this machine," Mael said as the portal closed, "Take care. We hope to see you again."

* * *

**_A/N: _**I wholeheartedly apologize for the wait. I wanted this to be a long chapter but the longer I took writing it, the less I could focus so I had to force myself to end it here. I've also kinda got sucked into TikTok lately so that's been a thing. I really want this semester to be over. I don't mind online classes, for the most part, I'm just tired and I just want to sleep all day. I'm usually like this around the end of the semester so this isn't new to me. I'm just lazy.

Either way, I don't know when Chapter 8 will be out but I'm guessing it will take a while. Until then, see you next time.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8: Burdens**_

* * *

Aizawa glared down at a sheepish Midoriya while All Might badgered him with questions. It took all of the homeroom teacher's will to not slap the teenager around with his scarf and, instead, he chose to merely keep the young man tied in his scarf, increasing its grip every time Midoriya gave half-assed answers to All Might's questions.

Eveline and the others were with the principal, working on negotiations for six strangers to stay at UA. At first, Nezu wasn't too pleased with the newcomers, but Eveline, perhaps without realizing it, managed to convince him by explaining to him what had happened. However, he was still concerned about how this could affect the other students so the group followed him to his office so that they could think over their accommodations more thoroughly.

Aizawa didn't mind the new group as much as Midoriya thought he would but that was mostly because he was more interested in punishing the problem child of 1-A. Even so, he was being partially merciful.

"How many times do we have to tell you to not tackle problems like this on your own?" Midoriya lowered his head further as All Might scolded him. "We're here to help you, why is that so hard for you to understand?"

Midoriya wanted to argue, wanted to say that he understood that they were here for him, but he resisted. He knew that he only had himself to blame for this; he should have said something but he was worried that telling anyone about Eveline would have negative consequences. _I should have had more faith in my teachers…._

"Your new friend has asked to take some of your punishment since she felt this is her fault," Aizawa snapped, "But you're not getting off that easy. For the rest of the month, you're on cleaning duty in the dorms and you're not allowed to leave the school for any reason."

_Well, that's not too bad...I'll be behind in my homework but-_

"And YOU have to explain to your mother what happened."

Midoriya felt heart stopped a second; had his mother been informed that he was missing?! If she knew then he'd have to leave UA!

"No one told her yet," All Might added softly, "we didn't have any clues to go off and we thought that we should have something more to tell her. You came back just as we called her over. She should be here soon."

"O-Oh…" Midoriya's body began to quiver with dread at the thought of explaining to his mother that he had been abducted from his own room. Yes, that was going to go over well with Inko Midoriya, wasn't it? And then explaining that a very pretty blonde could talk to him through some telepathic link that he still couldn't explain? If she didn't force him out of UA she certainly was going to have a heart attack.

"From now on," Aizawa growled as he removed his scarf from Midoriya's body, "you will tell us everything that is going on. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir!" Midoriya answered quickly, fearing that a delayed or hesitant response was going to change the staff's mind on the group of six staying at the school.

"Good, now go back to the dorms." Never in Midoriya's life had he run out of that office faster than he did at that moment. He was grateful that none of the other students were out to see him and his classmates were still going about their regular activities so he had time to collect himself and think over his impending conversation with his mother.

As he entered his bedroom, he wondered if he should ask Eveline for help with his mother. _She knows more of what happened to me, which is kind of weird but I guess she's used to Merlin's antics. That and there's something calming about her presence too. It might help…._

**_You want me to talk with your mom?_**

"AH!" Midoriya involuntarily yelped aloud before crying out to Eveline, _I wasn't even directing that thought at you!_

_**I told you, you talk to me without meaning to all the time.**_ Eveline giggled, he could imagine that she was smiling to herself. _**Besides, since space and time are no longer separating us, this link of ours is stronger than it used to be. I can hear you a lot better than when we were first talking.**_

Midoriya blushed, he really needed to learn how to block her from hearing his thoughts. He thought that so long as he didn't direct any questions at her she couldn't hear him, but it appeared that he was just lucky or she chose to stay quiet.

**_Either way, _**Eveline added with a light sigh, _**I'd help you with your mom, but Mr. Nezu said that you have to do everything by yourself since your teacher assigned you that punishment.**_

"I should have guessed." Midoriya pressed his back against his door, feeling a little defeated. Honestly, he wasn't sure how to approach the topic in a way that didn't make things worse. _I'm worried that she might force me to leave… How do I explain what happened…?_

_**Just be honest.**_ Eveline responded, _**No matter what you say, she's going to get upset. It's what mothers do when their babies are in trouble.**_

Midoriya smiled slightly; he couldn't deny that he was his mother's baby, Her only child. She took her mothering instincts to a whole new level with him, though he never helped with that. With all of the injuries, he gave to himself, it was a miracle that she hadn't needed to go to the hospital.

_**My mother used to nearly have heart attacks every time I'd go off on my little adventures with my friends. I'll admit, I was a trouble magnet.**_

_You don't say…_ Midoriya's smile widened before falling again. He remembered the bottle that Mael had given him and wondered what he should do with it. He could drink it now, but would that be a good idea. _Hey, this bottle….should I drink it?_

**_Considering your mother's coming, I'd recommend that you don't._** Eveline admitted softly. **_Mael__ wanted it to affect us both and trust me, you'll anger your teachers if you just pass out._**

_Is that what it'll do?_

**_It'll allow us to see his memories using our spiritual bodies, meaning our physical bodies will be unresponsive until we've seen everything he put into the bottle._**

_I see…_ Midoriya couldn't help but wonder as to why things regarding Eveline had to be so complicated. But then again, that might be because she's so different from him and his world.

**_Your principal is letting us live in your dorm building, my room will be on the fourth floor, next to a girl named Ochako Uraraka. Bryan will be on the same floor, next to Katsuki Bakugo._**

_What about Zelda? And the boys?_

**_We all decided that it was best they not live in the dorms. Namely, because they were afraid of Tristan getting into a fight with some of the other boys in your class._**

_Kacchan hates little kids…_

**_Yeah...we figured that out a little bit ago. Hehe…_**

Midoriya could only imagine what had happened between the overly protective and obnoxious Tristan and the harsh, hothead Bakugo. There was probably a lot of yelling, near infanticide, and probably Aizawa wanted to flay Bakkugo alive for trying to murder a child.

**_Either way, Zelda's really good with kids and that little girl, Eri, she's living here too._**

"Eh!?" Midoriya shot up, his door making a noise as his weight was taken off of it. "Eri's here…?"

**_She moved in while you were gone, I saw her in passing. She's living in the teacher's dorms which is where Zelda and the boys are going to be during our stay. The same with my grandfather._**

A slight smile spread across his lips; at least things were working out in their favor for the time being. The next hurdle was dealing with them until they could go back.

"IZUKU!"

Scratch that, the next hurdle was calming down his mother! He hurried down to the common room, finding his mother flooding the room with her tears.

"Mom!" Midoriya weakly smiled at his mother, earning another round of sobs as she demanded to know what was going on. "Mom, please don't cry. It's nothing terrible, I promise."

Mrs. Midoriya was in a little too much emotional distress, so Midoriya decided to calm her by taking her to his room to show her what it looked like. His line of thought was that his room looked nearly identical to his bedroom back home; seeing something that familiar might ease her nerves a bit.

"Look, mom," he smiled as he showed off his room. "It's like it was back home, right?"

His mother was calmed by this, commenting on how his room was arranged and she enjoyed the veranda. However, she wasn't easily distracted; she wanted to know what had happened because something had to have happened.

"I-It's a long story, um…" Midoriya looked around, suddenly wishing he was like Sato with an oven in his room and the talent to make delicious treats or like Yayorozu with her tea. He was tempted to text them and ask if they could be of assistance but he decided against it. He didn't want to cause any more trouble. "Okay...I should bring snacks but…"

"No, no!" His mother insisted, "I can't eat right now, just tell me."

Midoriya shifted slightly, "Let me get you water at least. Okay?"

Though Mrs. Midoriys didn't want to be in the dark any longer, she accepted his offer and Midoriya quickly went back to the common room to get a bottle of water for his mom. When he came back, he had a good idea of what to say to her.

* * *

**_What do you mean she's freaking out?_**

_I tried to be honest with her and she flipped! I don't know what to do!_

Eveline let out a slight sigh before standing up from her seat. She had been with Nezu and Aizawa, discussing how she and her friends could use UA's facilities for their own purposes. Nezu thought it would work in the students' favor to go against completely different enemies, so he suggested that Aizawa and Vlad let Eveline, Zelda, and Bryan participate in training exercises. Aizawa wasn't totally sold on the idea, but he was slowly warming up to it.

"Is something the matter, Liones-san?" Nezu asked softly.

Eveline smiled sheepishly, "Ah, I- Midoriya is panicking because his mother is upset."

"Is that really bothersome to you?"

Eveline shrugged, "A little, but I should help him." When she noticed that Aizawa was about to argue, she quickly added, "I'm aware that this is part of his punishment for not being honest, but you have to realize that what he's telling her is a lot and he hardly knows how to explain it. Besides, this is my fault as well."

She politely bowed to the duo and left the room, hurrying as quickly as she could to Midoriya's room. Having their link guide her to her destination, she was outside his door in no time.

"Izuku Midoriya, I will not have this!" Eveline cringed as she heard 's voice through the door.

"It's not as bad as you think, I swear!" Midoriya's voice was so high pitched that Eveline almost confused him for a girl. "Mom, it wasn't the school's fault!"

"Then whose fault is it then?"

Eveline had her hand up, ready to knock on the door, but paused when she heard his mother.

Who was to blame? She was. She had always been to blame for the misfortunes that happened. Her family disappearing? That was her fault. Flora dying and Anna becoming a puppet? That was her fault. And Midoriya's current predicament? Her fault too…

With a deep breath, she forced back her feelings and knocked on the door. The room went silent, feeding into Eveline's growing anxiety. She almost ran away from the door when she heard footsteps, but the second she saw it open, she put on her best smile.

"Eveline….!"

* * *

A/N: I apologize for not getting this chapter out sooner. I had this chapter written out but it needed several rewrites to get it to where I was aiming. It's still not perfect and I'll most likely come back and rewrite it at later date but it's out at least. I'm trying to write out more of Eveline's character, which is something I feel needs to be expressed.

I'm going to try and get another chapter out before June ends. I hope I can keep this promise!


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9: What To Do Now?**_

* * *

The moment Eveline entered his room, was the moment that Midoriya realized that Eveline had a special gift for relieving heavy emotions. Admittedly, he should have figured that out a long time ago, but he had never experienced it first hand. When he saw the blonde standing at his door, he felt a wave of calmness crash over him in a way that he had never felt before.

"Izuku?" His mother called from behind him, "Izuku, who is that?"

He quickly snapped out of the slight trance he was in and introduced Eveline. "This is Eveline Liones, the woman I was trying to tell you about."

His mother, almost immediately, was on the defensive and seemed to already be developing a dislike toward the blonde, but Eveline hardly seemed bothered by it.

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Midoriya." Eveline smiled as she entered the room. "I was asked to be of assistance to your son if you don't mind."

* * *

It took a lot of work to calm down Mrs. Midoriya, and even more to stop her from demanding that Midoriya leave the school, but with their combined persuasion, Eveline and Midoriya managed.

Eveline took the time to carefully explain what had happened to her son; from his abduction to his return, all of it was shared. She even explained that she and Midoriya share a link between them, though she emphasized that she didn't know why it was there.

"Are things like this uncommon?" Mrs. Midoriya asked.

Eveline paused before answering, "As far as I'm aware, it is and isn't."

"What do you mean?"

"There have been bonds like this before, usually between partners," Eveline explained as gently as she could, "But the part that gets me is that your son and I are from different worlds. And I'm sure we've never met before."

Midoriya shifted slightly; he wanted to tell them that they all had met before, that the proof of this was with Bakugo, but he refrained. The fact that his mother wholeheartedly agreed with Eveline worried him and add in that Mael had the answers in that bottle made things worse.

Given what Mael had said before Kasdeya showed up, Midoriya had every reason to believe that Mael erased their memories and that this link manifested when he met Eveline as a child. The only questions he had now was how did that happen and why Mael tried to break it. Was erasing their memories of one another how he tried to break it? Or was that just some side-effect?

"Well…" the strained tone of his mother snapped Midoriya out of his thoughts. He looked up to see that she still looked agitated though not as nearly irritated as she had been before. "I suppose you're right…"

"I'm sorry that your son was taken," Eveline smiled, "I'll make sure that my friends and I won't burden him any further."

Though his mother fell for that line, Midoriya knew better: he was involved this much already and he had no intention of letting them fight alone. Of course, he was going to have to deal with his teachers trying to stop him first.

* * *

After his mother finally left the school, Midoriya and Eveline were allowed to do as they pleased. Bryan was already settled into his room, already intent on sleeping the rest of the day away. Zelda and the others were still settling in their respective rooms so, to pass the time, Eveline asked Midoriya to show her around the campus.

"This place is huge," Eveline noted softly as they passed some of the training grounds.

Midoriya nodded, unsure as to why he felt excited about her approval toward his school. "Yeah, it takes some getting used to. It's a good thing we live in the dorms because I don't think I would've been able to explore the campus as I have if I didn't live here."

"That's how I felt when I was little." Eveline smiled, "I used to think that Liones and Camelot were the only places in the whole world. I knew both kingdoms like the back of my hand!"

"You did?"

She nodded, seemingly lost in the memory of her childhood. "Yup! Dad used to tell me that if I could find every little secret in either kingdom, he would give me a treat, so of course, I did."

Midoriya smiled as he listened to her recount every little adventure she'd go on within the kingdoms' walls. However, a small detail nagged at him; if he remembered correctly, Eveline said she used to visit Liones. But just now, she said the world used to seem so small to her…

"Then we couldn't stay in Britannia anymore." Midoriya was caught off guard by that statement, but he managed to remain calm. He didn't want to startle her. "Dad's powers were still increasing and mom needed to unite what was left of the goddess clan, so we were sent with mom to the Celestial realm while dad went back to the Demon realm for a bit."

Midoriya was silent for a second, unsure how to ask what she meant or if he should ask for clarification. Something, perhaps his more inquisitive side, urged him to delve deeper into the conversation but his manners kept him from speaking. However, Eveline must have either heard his internal thoughts or quickly realized that she ought to explain.

"Y-You see, um…" Eveline paused, chewing her lip as she carefully throughout her response. "Well...My dad is the son of the Demon King and my mom the daughter of the Supreme Goddess. There's a whole complicated history between them but my grandparents cursed my parents because they weren't supposed to fall in love with each other. My dad was cursed with immortality and my mother with perpetual reincarnation. There was more to it than that but that's the gist. To break the curses, they needed someone with the equivalent power level of my grandparents, or greater."

"Why?" Midoriya asked, clearly perplexed by what Eveline was saying. "Why did they need someone with equivalent power?"

"That's how spells and curses work," Eveline answered as they ceased walking. "To break a spell, you need to know how it works, and then you need to be powerful enough to break it or reverse it. For curses, it's the same thing but on a greater scale with a slight difference. To break a curse, you need to be as strong as the person who cast it or greater. My grandparents were essentially the gods of our kind so you can imagine what needed to happen. Plus my grandparents were hoping that this punishment might cause strife between my parents. If they came asking for forgiveness for their sins, the curses would have been lifted."

Midoriya shifted slightly, uncomfortable with the thought that forgiveness meant forsaking what her parents wanted. "But they loved each other, didn't they?" He didn't mean to sound so pitiful, but it seemed that his voice was just eager to express emotions he would rather keep to himself.

Eveline grinned, "Of course, my dad lived for three thousand years trying to find a way to break their curses. Eventually, he killed my grandfather and took his power as his own. That's how he broke their curses. But it comes at a cost." Eveline grew quiet before slowly starting to walk again, Midoriya followed beside her. "You see, the Demon King's power is too much for the human world, and keeps growing, so he needed to go back to the Demon Realm to see what he could do about it. Merlin was helping him out a little bit."

The two of them fell into an awkward silence; Eveline questioned if maybe she should have not told him anything while Midoriya struggled to comprehend what she shared. He wished that he had something to say that didn't make him sound stupid. But he was so completely far out of his depth with this girl and he didn't know how to understand things like this.

"I-I didn't know you muttered like this…"

"Yeep!" Midoriya promptly covered his mouth and stared at her with wide eyes. He didn't realize that he had been muttering again. His freckled face flushed a bright red while Eveline merely giggled. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to...I mean I J-just do that when-"

Eveline couldn't resist laughing at him, "Don't! You don't need to apologize. It was adorable."

The blush grew, "U-Um…" He struggled to form a coherent sentence, forcing himself to look away in an attempt to collect himself. "T-Thank you…"

Eveline smiled slightly, a soft blush colored her cheeks. "You're welcome."

The two resumed their walk, wandering about the campus without meeting anyone along the way. Both could feel eyes on them though, and Midoriya, who felt that it was probably just some of the school gossips, elected to ignore them. Eveline, on the other hand, kept nervously playing with her long locks of hair.

"Out of curiosity," Midoriya asked to ease the goddess, "Are there schools in your world?"

Eveline shook her head, "No." She drew out the vowel, taking a moment to consider if that response was truly accurate given her time in prison. "The closest thing I can think of is apprenticeships but even then that's a stretch."

Midoriya nodded, "So this is completely new to you?"

Eveline nodded as well, "Yeah, but it's interesting." As she said this, she took in the view as if she were observing some alien planet. While she preferred the clear view of valleys and mountains, she found that the sleek buildings that made up UA's campus were pretty in a unique way. Still, when shown the gardens that some of the students maintained, she was ecstatic.

"You like flowers?" Midoriya cringed as the question came out of his mouth. It sounded so stupid but Eveline didn't mind.

"I used to gather flowers with my mother and sister, Lunete." Eveline was grinning ear to ear as she bent down to smell the flowers. "Lunete taught me how to make flower crowns, but I don't think I could make one now. It's been a long time…" Her smile fell slightly and he could make out a slight tear growing in the corner of her eye.

"Ah..!" Sensing that he ought to do something, Midoriya quickly suggested they go get some food from the dorms. "We've not eaten all day and Iida, he's our class president, might get mad if we don't practice healthy habits."

Eveline's expression changed from melancholic to confused. She opened her mouth to say something, but the well-timed growl of her stomach prompted her to giggle.

"What's wrong?" Midoriya asked, both worried and perplexed by her behavior.

"I've been in the cell for so long, I forgot that I don't have to eat once a day anymore." She smiled at him and extended her hand, "Shall we?"

Midoriya took it, surprised that her skin felt pleasantly cool against his, and led her back to the dorms. A part of him wondered about what she had said.

Was Guinevere only feeding Eveline once a day? Now that he thought about it, how poorly was she being treated? Eveline had some bruises on her when he found her cell, but it was hard to tell if those were old or if they came from Kasdeya.

Midoriya stopped rather suddenly, much to Eveline's surprise. He turned slightly to get a look at Eveline. She looked perfectly fine. She was healed by Mael….she could heal herself too, couldn't she? He vaguely remembered that...

"Izuku?" Eveline gently tapped the tip of Midoriya's nose, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Are you okay…?"

A blush colored his face as he quickly turned away. "I-It's nothing."

It was nothing, wasn't it?

* * *

Midoriya could feel his whole body be engulfed in the flames of embarrassment as everyone in his class bombarded him and Eveline the second they entered the dorms. Most were eager to find out what had happened to Midoriya and who Eveline was, while a select few bothered to ask Midoriya if he was okay.

"Man!" Kaminari grinned as he patted Midoriya's back, "You gotta introduce us to your girlfriend!"

Midoriya felt his voice crack as he stuttered, "G-G-GIRLFRIEND!?" It had never occurred to him that anyone might assume that he and Eveline were partners in any way. It seemed random and outlandish; they technically just met!

Mineta joined in as well, teasing Midoriya on his supposed type. "I never took you for a blonde kind of guy. Then again, there was that babe at the expo."

"T-That was a misunderstanding!" Midoriya cried though it fell on deaf ears. Iida and Shoji were the only two to try and placate the teasing while the girls eagerly introduced themselves to Eveline.

Mina was the most energetic; she greeted Eveline with smiles and offered to take the young goddess shopping. "You'll be so cute! I promise!"

Eveline blushes slightly, "I appreciate the offer…" Though she offered the pink student a shy smile, she was beginning to feel an unnatural anxiety settle within her stomach. _**Izuku? What exactly does she mean by shopping?**_

It took all of his willpower to not verbally respond to her question. He responded very quickly, explaining what Mina meant before having to defend himself from another onslaught of accusations from his classmates.

"We're not dating!" He cried as Mineta and Kaminari casually teased him about a wedding date. Though it was uncharacteristic for them, most of the other male students joined in the teasing. The shared relief toward Midoriya's wellbeing had made them more willing to join the shenanigans; all this attention left him unable to be Eveline's emotional support, which she desperately needed.

The young goddess was completely out of her depth but tried to remain optimistic; unfortunately, it showed that she was slowly growing more and more uncomfortable. Having spent years locked away from the world had drained this once outgoing and sociable girl. It bothered her; Eveline always believed that she would be happier out of prison and yet she felt worse.

Yaoyorozu, seeing that Eveline was growing somewhat anxious, decided to pull her away from the crowds and bring her to the kitchen where she had some tea already waiting for everyone.

"Sorry if this isn't something you like," she smiled sheepishly as she handed Eveline a mug, "but it looked like you needed a moment away from everyone."

Eveline stared at Yaoyorozu, surprised that she saw Eveline's discomfort, "Thank you…" She took a sip of the tea and quickly changed from timid to joyful. "Oh! This tastes just like the tea my mother used to give me!"

"I'm glad!"

While the two had their tea, from behind a wall, stood Bakugo. He couldn't bring himself to even be out with everyone else so he hid where not even Kaminari or Kirishima would look for him. He had been watching Eveline and Midoriya for a while, and he was certain that she didn't remember them either. That shouldn't have bothered him but it did. Maybe he was overthinking it, but he couldn't help but wonder if there was a good or bad reason for the memory loss.

"It's none of my damn business.." he grumbled to himself as he stomped off to the elevator. "It wasn't like we had anything special… she kissed Deku too…" But as he stalked off, he failed to notice the curious gazed of a certain brunette.

* * *

The castle within the demon realm was eerily quiet as Guinevere received Azazel and Kasdeya's reports. The platinum blonde was seated upon the dilapidated throne with Layla, the dark-skinned genie, floating next to her. Irritation was drawn upon the blonde's face, her eyes darkened with each sentence that the succubus uttered. What kept the second born princess from lashing out at Kasdeya was Layla affectionately running her fingers through the blonde's silvery hair.

"It sounds to me," Layla declared when Kasdeya was done, "that your ego cost us Eveline."

"I-!" Kasdeya tried to defend herself, but promptly shut up as an icy glare stared her down. "I-I'm sorry…"

Guinevere turned her glare toward the large man, "And you?"

Azazel smiled back at his leader, completely unfazed. "What do I apologize for? I told you that if Eveline got away, I wouldn't bother to go after her. You left that to this moron,"

Layla pressed her hand against Guinevere's tense shoulder, "Allow me to deal with him, he'll just drive you mad."

Guinevere snorted, "No," the blonde stood from her throne in a manner that befitted a spoiled brat. "I've been too lenient with all three of you. You had one job and you failed me without much effort. That changes."

Before anyone could speak, the large, wooden doors opened to reveal the guards and a few human soldiers. Among these humans was a tall, unnaturally pale man with magenta hair; Zagan, the human warlord, had come to speak his mind. Unlike his soldier, who cowered at the thought of meeting the second princess, Zagan boldly moved toward the Black Knights, unbothered by the looks he was receiving.

"Guinevere," He greeted with a slight bow, "rumors have reached me saying that you were planning on killing my bride."

Guinevere turned to Layla, confused as to how that information got out as only Layla, herself, and Eveline knew about the execution. When Layla could not answer, the blonde turned back to the warlord and offered her sweetest smile. "Zagan, I don't think you should be going around believing in rumors. I'd never-"

"Cut the crap," he ordered, his relaxed demeanor fell and even the Knights felt a shiver run through them. "I know that you despise her and any opportunity to be rid of her is a blessing for you. Now," he turned his head toward his second in command, nudging his head in a silent order. "I want complete transparency between us, understand?"

His second in command, understanding the gesture, nodded and pulled out a strange map from his coat pocket. He handed it to Azazel, who happened to be closest to him, and Azazel opened it without any enthusiasm.

He struggled to read the romaji, often having to repeat himself before settling on what he thought was right, but came close to properly pronouncing the city's name. " Musutafu, Japan? The hell is that?"

Guinevere rushed forward and snatched the map, "Japan?!"

"What the hell is that?" Kasdeya repeated with mild annoyance. "Is that a recipe?"

"Hold your tongue," Layla growled as she looked at the map over Guinevere's shoulder. "Japan is a place; the old Lord Nanashi came from there."

Zagan smiled, nodding as he spoke. "One of my spies stole that map from Merlin a few days ago, before that green-haired boy showed up."

"Green haired boy?" Azazel turned toward the pouty succubus, unmoved by everything around him. "Didn't you mention someone like that?"

"Oh!" Kasdeya perked up, showing her sharp pearly teeth, "Broccoli Head! He got Eveline!"

Guinevere took the map and threw it at Kasdeya, "So that's who she brought!? That stupid kid!" In a fit of rage, the blonde allowed some of her demonic power seep through the room, alarming the three knights but only gaining a mere smirk from Zagan.

"It looks like the sorceress has blindsided you." he teased, knowing full well that Guinevere was livid. "Perhaps this might compel you to cooperate with me?"

Guinevere turned, "Oh? How so?!"

Zagan's smile only grew as he presented her with a grand scheme that, in his opinion, benefitted both of them. Of course, the main clause was that Eveline couldn't be killed, which went against everything Guinevere wanted, but he managed to secure her support under the promise that Eveline would never be heard from again. All he needed was the supplies taken from Merlin and a few demons for assurance.

"Do you think you'll be able to get her?" Layla hissed, she didn't trust this human to get the job done and, like Guinevere, didn't believe that Eveline could be left alive without interfering with their plans. "She never liked you and if that boy went out of his way to save her…"

"He's only a child, maybe sixteen," he laughed, winking at the annoyed Kasdeya as he spoke, "what challenge could he pose?"

"Bryan and Zelda are with them!" Kasdeya snapped, "Even if Broccoli Head ain't much, they'll probably kick your ass."

"Kasdeya!" Layla snarled, frightening the succubus, "Do NOT support our enemies."

The blue-haired succubus gave a soft growl as her response but didn't argue further. However, Kasdeya's attitude toward the Warlord had sparked a sudden change of heart from Guinevere and she asked if she could make a slight adjustment to his plan.

"It's nothing major, I promise," She said sweetly, "but if you're going to keep my little sister, then I want something else in exchange."

"Which is?"

The twisted smile that crossed the blonde's lips could only be described as horrific and unnaturally evil if applied to anyone else in the room. For Guinevere, it was a smile that suited her best. "I want the heads of Zelda, Bryan, and that boy, and I will have Kasdeya go with you to ensure that my prizes are collected."

"WHAT?!" Kasdeya shouted at the top of her lungs, her voice cracking under the strain. "You can't be serious!"

"Azazel," Guinevere's smile never faltered as she ordered her knights, "take Kasdeya down to the lab, I'll deal with her later."

Azazel did as he was told, throwing the outraged demon over his shoulder and carrying her to the lab. As they left, they could hear Zagan agreeing to Guinevere's new terms. Azazel wondered what sparked the sudden change in his leader, but he understood there was an ulterior motive and it probably was more in line with what Guinevere truly wanted. He only hoped that Zelda had passed on what he told her because this was gearing to be a devastating war.

* * *

_**A/N: **_I promised I'd post another chapter this month and I have kept my word. I'm having just the slightest bit of writer's block so this chapter, which had been frustrating me for two weeks, was merged with what should have been chapter 10. Because of that, I think I might be late in July.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10: I Want To Know**_

* * *

"So you have classes?" Bryan asked as he laid upon one of the many common room couches. As the school didn't want anyone to be able to immediately identify their guests, Eveline and her friends were given their own UA uniforms, which Bryan had thrown on before coming down for breakfast. He didn't like the uniform all that much; it didn't quite fit him and he found it irritating on his many scars. Eveline's fit just fine but she had to request tights as she felt a little exposed in it.

"Yes." Midoriya nodded, his large yellow backpack was pressed into his back as he gripped the straps. He had spent the past twenty minutes gently explaining what the school's schedule was and what they, as guests, were allowed to do during the school's academic half of the day.

"And we can't do anything until when?"

"Training is right after lunch," Midoriya answered rather nervously, "I or one of the teachers will come to get you guys so you can join us. Okay?"

Eveline was perfectly fine with this arrangement, as it was more freedom than she was used to, but Bryan and Zelda weren't too keen on it. They were used to being able to go wherever they pleased and any restrictions were typically ignored by them. After all, they were technically royalty back in their world.

"Alright," Bryan groaned as he stretched out, some of the buttons on his shirt popped off as he did so. "I'll give you an hour's leeway and after that, I'm hunting you down myself."

Midoriya visibly relaxed as he no longer feared that Bryan might go against the school's rules. Eveline was happy too, but for a different reason. As she had spent so long in mostly solitary confinement, she needed someone to update her on certain things and Bryan was the right person to hound with questions.

"I promise I'll be back!" Midoriya hurried off to class; he was the last of 1-A to leave their dorm which was due to him needing to deal with them.

Eveline watched the young man leave, smiling as she heard him run toward the large glass building where the classrooms resided. A small part of her wanted to invade his thoughts while he was in class just as she used to but she shook that selfish desire out of her mind. There were far more important things to do than spy on Midoriya.

"You know," Eveline, who had been standing beside Midoriya until he left, turned to stare down at the half-fairy man. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you kinda like Deku."

Eveline smiled slightly and rolled her eyes. "I hope you do know better." When Bryan wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, Eveline shook her head and added, " Besides, we've got more important things to talk about."

"Do we?" He asked as he sat up; at this point, he tore off the last few buttons he had, leaving his chest completely bare for all to see. The sight was nothing Eveline hadn't seen before, though she noted a few more scars scattered along both his chest and belly. "And what's that?"

Eveline took a seat on the arm of the couch Bryan was on; the look of her face didn't fit the Princess' normal array of expressions. She seemed perplexed yet angered. She seemed to struggle as to what topic she should begin with, leading Bryan to wonder what was going through that pretty little head of hers. "To start," She said finally, "Kasdeya's appearance."

A sneer was quickly drawn upon Bryan's mouth. "What about her?"

"Why did she look so different?" Eveline asked softly, unwilling to avoid the sore topic. "She used to be a redhead, bright apple-red hair, with fiery eyes and slit pupils."

"Yeah…?" Bryan begrudgingly nodded, "She started looking different about a year ago."

"Well," Eveline continued, somehow a little hesitant but equally determined to speak her mind. "It's just that...I'm not saying that isn't a perfectly normal and logical excuse for the drastic change in her appearance, but she seemed so different. And not just in looks but in strength as well."

Bryan absentmindedly nodded though he was internally going through his memories trying to recollect the moment he had first seen the new version of the succubus. As he said earlier, he saw this newly blue demon a year ago when Merlin and Zelda first told him about their plan to get Eveline. She had only shown up because it was suspicious for the princes and princesses of the fairy kingdom to leave the forest while their parents were MIA. He had spoken to her that time, but he couldn't remember what he had said; he did remember that she kept messing with her blue locks, almost as if she were trying to convince herself that they weren't blue by not looking at it and then getting annoyed when they entered her line of sight.

He had thought that it was strange back then; everyone recognized her as a redhead so she wouldn't have changed her appearance herself. Not only that but what benefit came from that?

"I know we used to joke that she was like some lab rat for Guinevere," Eveline continued, "and now I'm beginning to think we weren't far off with that…"

Bryan nodded, "It would make sense," he paused and took a moment to fully consider the possibility that she was physically altered by the second-born Liones. It wasn't impossible as everyone knew Guinevere had interests in science, which they could thank Merlin for. "But now that you mention it, she was thicker too. The Kasdeya we saw was almost sickly looking."

"But still powerful."

"Not by her normal standards though." Bryan added in a thoughtful tone, "Don't you remember when Uncle Meliodas had that tournament? We were all about six or so when it happened."

Eveline smiled slightly; she did remember that tournament, she remembered it very well. It was one of her father's and Uncle Ban's grand schemes to see who had the stronger knights (their mothers refused to let them duke it out themselves because of the severe damage they caused); it was all in good fun and she enjoyed watching her father and uncle get worked up over every round. Kasdeya was a meager knight back then, hardly viewed as anything beyond ordinary in comparison to the other contestants. She only got in at Guinevere's insistence and she had completely astounded the audience with her speed and strategic attacks, winning until Gilthunder beat her in the semi-finals.

Thinking back to the other night, she could say that the demon's speed was less than it used to be and in retrospect, while her weakness was the same, it did strike Eveline as odd that Kasdeya would recklessly use her familiar in the cell. Because of the huge disadvantage, the snake creature caused by their separation, her reliance on it was typically reserved for last resort kinds of situations. Why did she use it then?

"Something's not right," Bryan sighed and he finally removed himself from the couch. "Guinevere's a devious person, and I'm not gonna lie, us saving you hardly seems like it matters much because it was too easy to get you."

Eveline had to agree. "Security had always been pretty lax around my cell…" she lowered her head slightly, "I was constantly moved deeper into the prison but I rarely had guards."

"Would it even be beneficial to her to have someone watch you?" The question took Eveline by surprise. "I mean, you're not only a half-goddess, but you're Elizabeth's daughter. You can talk to people's hearts just like she could. You could have easily swayed anyone to help you, even if they were a demon."

Eveline, again, agreed, "I suppose that's true, but that still answers nothing really."

"Answers aren't gonna come easy." He stated, crossing his arms behind his head as he headed off to the kitchen. He hadn't eaten yet and Midoriya had mentioned how there should be snacks there. "Zelda would be the best person to ask."

Eveline watched as Bryan left her, feeling as if she had only gone in circles with their conversation. She still only had suspicions, nothing was concrete and the only definitive answer was to ask Zelda. "I tried already…" she said under her breath.

She did try, just before bed, she had snuck out to Zelda's room at the teacher's dorms and tried to talk to her. Zelda only gave vague answers or insisted that they wait until the next day to talk. The blonde left without anything useful to think about.

Though she told herself that it was too soon to tell for sure, Eveline noticed that Zelda was distant. Of course, the vampire princess had always been that way since their childhood and Guinevere's reign had only worsened her social anxiety, however, she was never that way with Eveline. They had been close from infancy, so why did Eveline feel a sudden wall between them?

Maybe it's just me… Eveline wasn't sure if she should be making assumptions about her old friends and family after all these years. They've changed during her imprisonment, living their own lives, and she didn't because she couldn't. It's all in my head, that's all it is…

* * *

Midoriya quickly changed into his hero costume, much to the amusement of the other boys. Once they had been left alone by the teachers, Kaminari started teasing Midoriya about Eveline. It wasn't anything like before, no one brought up Eveline being his girlfriend, instead, he went on about how pretty she was and how he was amazed that Midoriya was into those kinds of girls.

Midoriya paused, his left glove remained half-limp on his arm as he struggled to not sound so innocent. "Those kinds…?"

"Blonde, green-eyed!" Kaminari swooned as he dreamily waltzed around the locker room. "And she's so pretty!"

Mineta tried to join, "With great big-" but Bakugo stomped his foot into the head of UA's pervert. "Gah!"

"Woah there," Kirishima reached out to Bakugo and tried to pull him off the squirt, to little avail. "You don't need to stomp his brains out."

Bakugo didn't respond, though Midoriya could see that there was something in his eyes that seemed like a sort of non-verbal response. Was he jealous? Offended? Disgusted? All three? He wanted to ask but knew better; if Bakugo was willing to nearly obliterate Mineta, he didn't want to be the next target.

"You shouldn't talk that way about her…" Midoriya said as he eyed Bakugo, "She's a princess after all and her parents are supposed to be the gods of her world…"

All the boys (minus Bakugo) stared at Midoriya, their eyes wide with shock. That little blonde was the daughter of gods?

"It's true…" Midoriya tried to not let the stares get to him as he spoke, "her cousin Zelda is a princess too. Only her dad is Eveline's uncle and her mom is a vampire princess."

"A vampire!" Mineta's head shot up, actually knocked Bakugo's foot back, "How exotic!"

His excitement was quickly squashed as the explosive blonde harshly gripped the top of his head and lifted his small body to Bakugo's eye level. "LISTEN HERE YOU LITTLE FREAK!" Bakugo would have killed the pervert at that moment, but Iida quickly separated the two, urging Bakugo to save his rage for training. Kirishima also butted in, telling the blonde that he could fight Mineta later.

It came as a genuine surprise to all of the boys how quickly Bakugo had gone from murderous to defensive; he quickly insisted that it was nothing and stomped out of the room. His temper may naturally quick, but never quite like that and no one knew if they should be alarmed by it. Either way, his reaction killed Kaminari's playful teasing and everyone silently agreed to not bring up any more suggestive thoughts aimed at Eveline.

"Woah," Midoriya heard Sero mutter under his breath as they all began to exit the locker room. "What sparked that kind of rage out of him?"

Kaminari nodded, eyeing Midoriya as he whispered, "Both had a history with her, remember? At least that's what Bakugo said…"

"Still," Sero replied, "he said they only knew each other for, what, a couple of days…?"

"Who knows, Bakugo's a strange guy." The conversation died as they came out into the sunlight. It seemed that they wanted the incident to remain within the walls of the locker room though Midoriya knew that it wouldn't stay there for long.

Kacchan...I thought maybe you told me everything, Midoriya lowered his head slightly, half aware of what was going on around him. Aizawa and All Might were explaining the course which he managed to get the gist of through the few points he overheard. It was a simple exercise, similar to what he had done with Bryan before the rescue. The only difference was that it required chasing a villain, a single person for the moment.

Two major groups were divided, one for the heroes and the other for the villains. The students assigned the villain roles were chosen based on their speed and destructive capabilities; of that group, there was Iida, Uraraka, Tokoyami, Bakugo, Sato, and Midoriya. For heroes, they were paired without quirk compatibility in mind. As Aizawa put it, "compatibility of quirks could be learned regardless of who they were partnered with,". The arrangement looked like this.

Bakugo vs. Sero, Asido, and Ojiro

Sato vs. Tsuyu and Jiro

Uraraka vs. Todoroki and Hagakure

Tokoyami vs. Shoji, Ayoyama, and Mineta

Iida vs. Kirishima and Koda

Midoriya vs. Yaoyorozu and Kaminari

"This exercise requires a great deal of strategy," Aizawa stated as he finished separating the groups. "Just because you know each other's quirks doesn't mean you know everything about them. Be smart, be quick, and don't get distracted."

"Is there a time limit?" Iida asked, "or is it until the villains are caught?"

"We're timing you for the moment," All Might held up his smartphone, showing that he had the stopwatch ready. "Once we've gotten the first run dealt with, we'll time the match based on that."

"So this is about being quick?" Hagakure mused softly.

"Crime happens all the time and you need to be able to move from one chase to another or end a pursuit to minimize damage and amount of people who will be affected by it." All Might moved his gaze toward the group of villains and added that they needed to avoid capture by any means necessary. "Technically you have two ways of going about this, I'll leave it to you to figure out which one you should follow."

With that dealt with, the simulation began with Bakugo, giving Midoriya plenty of time to muse over his plan for helping Eveline and his strategy for the exercise.

* * *

Eveline, Zelda, and Bryan made their way to where I-A was training, following the lead of Midnight who Eveline immediately liked though Zelda and Bryan seemed to have taken an instant dislike toward her. Though the blonde didn't know for sure, she suspected that the duo associated the mature hero with Merlin. Physically, she could see similarities; both had black hair, angular features, and natural sex appeal though Merlin never cared much about those sorts of things. Also, some of their mannerisms were similar in action though not in meaning.

It was a pity to judge her based on a preconceived association with another woman, but Eveline was just as guilty of that as the other two. From the moment she laid eyes on Midnight, she felt comfortable with the hero because she reminded her of Merlin. There were other reasons beyond that, such as how knowledgeable Midnight was and how easy it was for Eveline to approach her.

"They should be training at the moment," Midnight hummed, speaking mainly to Eveline as she figured out that the other two weren't keen on her. "It's a cat and mouse pursuit, we do those a lot as heroes."

Eveline hummed in acknowledgment, she understood the coded exercise as Midoriya had explained it to her once when she interrupted his training some time ago. "Must be exhausting to do that…"

Midnight laughed, "it's a labor of love for some of us; I always loved a good chase but I'm sure there are others who aren't fond of it."

Eveline gave the pro-hero a slight smile; Midoriya's fight with Gentle came to mind and she wondered what Midoriya felt toward pursuits. She knew what he had felt in the moment (anger, desperation, determination were what she could immediately recall) but she wondered if he found it to be exhausting or thrilling.

"What exactly are you chasing?" Zelda asked, Eveline, looked over her shoulder to see a strange look on her cousin's face. It took a minute for her to realize that Zelda might not fully understand what they were talking about.

"Typically lower class villains like to run," Midnight smiled, it was a look of pride and maybe a twinge of arrogance, "sometimes a few of the big guys like make a break but that's usually when they know they're outnumbered or when they're faced with a hero who's stronger than them."

The conversation seemed to fade after that. Eveline had more questions to ask but she sensed that no one was eager to be pestered by her. It could have been her imagination as Midnight was very keen on sharing knowledge, but the other two didn't seem open to learning anything about this world. She should have guessed that; this wasn't just some escape. It was a means to an end; they needed to figure what to do to deal with Guinevere, or, at least, that's all she could think of them doing without their parents' help.

Realistically, we should be looking for them...and Lunete...The tomb that Guinevere told her about had been a mystery; she was only told that it existed and that their parents were sealed within it. But she did know from context that Lunete wasn't sealed in it. In fact, Lunete visited her once after Guinevere bragged about it; there was no way Guinevere could have put their eldest sister in it afterward, the seal would have broken. Not only that, but Lunete was strong enough to resist.

But her body is weak. That was right; Lunete, for as strong as her powers were, her body was weak which was why she was the diplomat of the Liones children. Fighting exhausted her, even healing herself could tire her out if she's injured beyond superficial cuts, so there was no concern toward Lunete going against Guinevere. But she still disappeared.

Lunete… Eveline had so many questions, and it seemed nobody wanted to answer her. She thought of that bottle Midoriya had; supposedly it had answers but to what questions? She only knew that it had to do with their link and Midoriya seemed to know something that she didn't.

Everyone knows something that I don't and I hate it…

"Here we are," Midnight extended her arm outward toward the arena. The group could see Uraraka escaping from Todoroki from a distance; the brunette girl was narrowingly dodging the boy's ice which was interesting to Eveline at least. Just by their powers, she knew who was who and it helped that everyone looked distinctly different from one another. "All Might and Aizawa have the kids under control, so I'll just drop you guys off with them and be on my way."

The group of three was taken straight to the teachers, who were pleased that they made it in a timely fashion. All Might greet them while Aizawa kept his eye on the simulation, informing them of what was happening and offering to let them join if they felt inclined to do so.

Bryan was the first to express curiosity toward the offer. "It's just running away?" He looked over the rails, watching as Uraraka was finally caught by the pair.

"More like a race," All Might pointed to the end of the arena where a pair of sleek metal doors were. "If the villain makes it there, they've successfully evaded the hero team. Otherwise, if the team gets them, they lose. It's about catching or evading as quickly as possible."

"Sounds like fun!" Eveline glanced toward her cousin, putting on her best puppy eyes. "Please, Zelda?"

"We're not on holiday…" Zelda looked away from the blonde in an attempt to avoid caving in to the blonde's wishes. Eveline gasped and tried to force the black-haired vampire to look at her, to little success. "Besides, I doubt-"

Bryan slung his arm around Eveline's shoulders and grinned cheekily, "C'mon, they're literally training for battle. Shouldn't we be doing the same?" He cupped the vampire's chin and turned her head toward them, much to her offense. She jerked her head out of his grip, which only amused Bryan. "Don't be like that, sugar bat."

Eveline's pleading expression quickly changes to one of confusion, glancing between the two. "Sugar bat?"

"Because she's a vampire who likes sweets!" Bryan squished Eveline closer to him, "So, sugar bat, what's the verdict?"

"Don't call me that!" Zelda glared at the tall man and rolled her eyes, crossing her arms in front of her chest rather indignantly. "I'm not participating."

"Please!" Eveline forced her way into Zelda's face, crocodile tears forming under her green eyes. It surprised Zelda that Eveline was capable of quickly moving from confusion to pleading again. "I'll do anything! Please!"

"Uh…" Zelda tried to look away again, but Bryan put himself into her field of view, grinning like the ass he was. "I-I...fine…"

"Yay!" Eveline and Bryan cheered, earning a dark scowl from Zelda and a humored smile from All Might.

When the first runs were through, Aizawa announced a slight change to their session. The villains in this simulation were allowed to take a partner of their choosing ad, with their help, try to improve their escape time. The class was mostly excited about this; except for Midoriya (to an extent), nobody had a clue of the powers of the three strangers, and the idea of fighting against someone they weren't familiar with excited them.

Since there were only three guests, it was decided that they could help one student which, while others found to be slightly unfair, others like Iida and Tsuyu found that it worked more to the other students' favor to watch as they were positive the guests would be joining other exercises and simulations.

Aizawa urged the villain group to make their choices, "The sooner you pick, the more you can train."

The first to pick was Bakugo who, unsurprisingly, refused the aid. His rejection, while short and to the point, relieved the trio; none of them wanted to work with someone so short-tempered at the moment.

Sato was next and he eagerly took Bryan as he admitted that his quirk only gave him so much to work with against his opponents. As he put it, he needed a partner who could watch his back, especially against Tsuyu.

Uraraka was about to reject the guests' help but the idea of talking with Eveline gave a moment of reconsideration. She ended up passing though, mostly because she remembered the embarrassing moment with Ayoyama during their exams. She had plenty of opportunities to talk with the half-goddess anyways.

Tokoyami also was about to decline but quickly changed his mind, taking Zelda as his partner. There was no real reason behind his choice, he just figured that she might have an easier time dealing with him than with the last two. That, of course, left Iida and Midoriya to pick Eveline and to the class' surprise, Iida asked if he might work with her.

"Really, Iida?" Kirishima asked from the crowd, "What's sparking the interest, bro?"

Iida offered a smile and said, "If Midoriya picks her, you guys will be focused on teasing him rather than giving her a chance to prove her strength." he turned toward Midoriya, offering a friendly grin, which was appreciated by the shorter teen. "Besides, it's not fair to keep her grouped with him."

The class seemed slightly taken aback by that but their spirits returned to them as Aizawa declared for the next rounds to begin. With their guests playing a role, things should certainly get interesting this time around.

* * *

_**A/N:**_ I am SO sorry for the long as fuck delay for this chapter. A lot of shit started to happen after school started and I had to attend my older brother's wedding last week. Some good came from this delay though, I got ahead two extra chapters. However, I doubt that I'll get to post the next chapter in November unless I get lucky with my homework.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Chapter 11: The Race**_

* * *

The simulation started again; as expected, Bakugo was destructive but less so than before. Any chaos he caused was strategically recycled from what was already destroyed in the arena and he made sure to use anything he could to misdirect or stall his pursuers. The hero team, Sero, Ashido, and Ojiro, found it difficult to handle his onslaught of tricks and decoys. However, they too had a trick up their sleeve.

If Bakugo had any weaknesses, it was his cockiness and brutality of his attacks. He could exhaust himself if he was forced to keep attacking and that was their ticket to a win. The problem, of course, was that their attacks, by comparison to his, weren't much to exhaust him. They had to resort to a similar tactic that he was using, taking debris and throwing it in his way, forcing him to make a sudden dodge or to unleash an explosion to move forward as he planned. It worked for the most part, however, Bakugo Katsuki was a hard one to get the upper hand on.

"You think you can get me that easy?!" Bakugo growled as Ashido came into view, preparing to use her acid on the ground beneath to slow him down. He raised his arm, his gauntlet heavy with ammunition for a devastating blow. "I ain't going down like this!"

Ashido had barely a second to dodge as a powerful explosion ripple through the air, aimed at the platform she was on. Without her, his greatest concern was promptly dealt with and his success was a guarantee.

"Bakugo wins," Aizawa announced through the speakers, his deadpanned tone remained despite his partial annoyance toward the teams. "Come back up so the next group can go."

With the previous team making their way back to the class, Sato and Bryan headed down the Arena, conversing as they went. Sato took the moment to explain his quirk to his partner, believing that the information would be useful to the half-human. Unsurprisingly, Bryan found Sato's quirk to be funny, "Who knew these quirks could be so strange. Merlin would love to have a look at you."

Sato didn't respond, a little confused by his statement but excited to see what his partner could do. Bryan only offered half of his abilities to the student, simply because he didn't see the point of going all out so soon. After the brief power run down, they began talking about strategy. "We will have to make it to the end together."

"Yeah, yeah," Bryan gave Sato a lopsided grin, his head awkwardly tilted in a dramatically lazy fashion. "That frog girl seems more like the muscle here. The other girl though, what does she do?"

"She plugs in her earphones and can listen in or send shockwaves through the ground," Sato answered plainly; admittedly, he didn't wholeheartedly understand the complete abilities of Kyoka Jiro. He did know the basics and had enough experience watching or working with her to have a good idea of her capabilities. "They work well together, I couldn't get very far."

Bryan nodded, his wolfish grin widening at the thought of experiencing the simulation. "Then they need to work alone."

The two made it to the starting point, Jiro and Tsuyu were nowhere to be seen as their starting point were further back. The shared goal between the "villains" was to make it to the end but Bryan had some tricks up his sleeve. When the match began, Bryan quickly told Sato to run and he abandoned his partner for a different route.

"What's he up to, ribbit?" Tsuyu asked as she and Jiro gave chase.

Jiro's brows furrowed out of annoyance, she figured that Bryan was going for the classic split to separate the opposing team play and she found it to be stupid. Still, as he was part of the exercise, she knew they were going to have to follow his lead. "Follow him and try to get him back with Sato."

Tsuyu nodded and left her partner's side, confident that she could find the unusual man without much hassle. However, that confidence was slightly faltered by some level of uncertainty. It was understandable though; she didn't know anything about Bryan's abilities, though she was aware that Bryan had supernatural abilities similar to a quirk, thanks to Midoriya.

From the ledge above the arena, the students watched, trying to keep up with Bryan's movements. Eveline and Zelda already could tell that Bryan was eager to show off, showing much of his battle-hungry side. Neither of them was surprised though, they just hoped that he would remember that he was participating in a simulation.

Hey, Eveline, Eveline stiffened, forgetting, for a split second, that Midoriya could speak to her telepathically. She turned slightly to look at the teen, finding that his eyes were solely focused on the battle below. I-I was thinking that we should talk about some things.

Eveline resisted nodding her head, Sure, how about after dinner? She had hoped that he would look at her, but he never did.

Yeah, meet me in my room… He seemed to have second thoughts but quickly added, That's okay, right? It's not creepy to you, is it?

What?

I-I asked you to meet me in my room, He answered, a blush coated his freckled cheeks while his eyes remained on the group. A part of her wondered why he wouldn't look at her, it hurt or, at least she thought it did. That's not inappropriate, is it?

Eveline smiled, thinking to herself that he was surprisingly cute when he was flustered. Was she making him flustered? I'm not offended by it. Besides, we have more important things to worry about than that.

She couldn't tell if he was relieved or had simply relaxed the slightest bit, but he returned his full attention to watching the arena, leaving her with a few more questions to ponder on. However, knowing that Midoriya was eager to have a conversation with her on things did lift her spirits. She could feel the weight of unanswered thoughts and theories and having one person willing to share in the burden made everything just a little better.

"He's toying with her." Eveline snapped out of her thoughts and turned her attention to Zelda. She looked down at where Tsuyu was and saw the poor girl being jerked around by Bryan. Pity filled her heart as she realized that Bryan wasn't giving those girls a chance, though she was aware that he was showing off too much making it equally an advantage for them later on if they ever faced off again.

"It's quite a strange tactic," Iida remarked disapprovingly, "but I guess we could face off against someone like that in the future."

Eveline wasn't sure what she could say about the ongoing fight but she did note that there seemed to be something off about him. She could assume that it had to do with Anna being gone, although she wondered if there was more to it than that. She'd try to look into his heart, unfortunately, as the son of Elaine, he was capable of knowing when she'd peek into his heart. Not only that but both agreed to never listen to the other's heart so if she broke that promise, he'd have every right to invade hers.

The fight naturally didn't end the same as the first round; with Bryan's Fox Hunt, Sato and him succeeded. In all honesty, Jiro and Tsuyu would have a better chance now that they witnessed his power, but third rounds weren't in the class's schedule.

The rest of the rounds went by fast, with everyone enthralled by the powers of their guests. Tokoyami benefited greatly with Zelda as his partner; their shared enhancements in the darkness made them the most difficult to face. Zelda's only complaint was, of course, Mineta; he was entranced by her vampiric beauty when he first saw her the day before, but seeing her in action a bit much for the local pervert. It was amusing to see Zelda immediately pin him down with her demonic energy while encompassing Tokoyami in darkness.

Midoriya took many notes of Zelda's abilities, mumbling as he tried to rationalize her powers and make sense of their core principles. Eveline expected that he would be fascinated by their powers; he had told her all about his notebooks and, while the two power types were vastly different, she enjoyed hearing about what similarities they shared.

"We're up next," Iida smiled warmly at the blonde, "your cousin was amazing, by the way."

Eveline smiled rather shyly, hiding her face with her long bangs. "She's always been that way, her mother wouldn't have it any other way."

Iida nodded, "I look forward to working with you then. If she's that strong, I can only imagine what you are capable of."

She refrained from answering; Iida's kindness, while genuine, made her feel unworthy of praise. She wasn't strong; everyone said she was, but she knew those praises to only be pretty lies.

As they reached the starting line, Eveline realized that she hadn't a clue of what Iida wanted her to do. Do they just run? Zelda hadn't; she took her time eliminating their pursuers before reaching the end. Was she expected to do the same? Perhaps now was also a bad time to remember that, besides healing herself, she hadn't used her powers in a long time. Did she even remember how to use them, could she control herself?

Be strong, Eveline pressed her hand into her chest, her eyes widened slightly as Midoriya's soothing voice entered her head again. Follow Iida's command, he'll tell you what to do and won't leave you behind.

The race began, Iida took off toward their destination, Eveline followed without realizing how she was doing it. From above, they saw the sparkling golden outline of wings; three pairs to be precise.

"Sh-She has wings?" Uraraka asked softly, to no one in particular.

"All goddesses have wings," Zelda stated, her tone concealed her own surprise. She hadn't thought Eveline could still use her wings after all these years. "However, she's technically a quarter human so they aren't 's pure energy creating those wings."

"Wait," Midoriya turned to the dark-haired vampire, "she's human?"

"A quarter," Bryan corrected, "her mother was reincarnated as a human."

That naturally piqued everyone's interest; they knew only what Bakugo had shared with Kirishima and Todoroki and they couldn't deny that they wanted to know more.

Eveline waited for some sort of command from Iida, following his lead as instructed. However, something was eating at her; something felt out of place and she wasn't able to figure out what it was. If she could hazard a guess, she felt a disturbance and it had to do with the birds that were keeping an eye on them.

It's someone's quirk, isn't it? She frowned as the thought passed through her mind. Animals weren't something she could control meaning she'd have to attack them, but that's something she'd rather avoid. Likewise, she wasn't sure if she was capable of a harmless attack. The energy she was using could easily burn Zelda, even a human would feel negative effects. F only she could reach animals like she could people.

"Watch out!" Iida cried as a wave of birds swept before them, blocking their path. "This is Koda's doing, we need to get through."

Eveline nodded and placed her hands on Iida's shoulders, "I can make them leave, but I might be distracted. Keep one hand on me, okay?"

Iida nodded, taking her hand as he led her out of sight. They were not running as they had before, this time they were going at a normal pace. She focused all of her energy on finding Koda's heart. She wasn't sure if her plan could work, but she was willing to try. She found Koda's heart after only a moment, she could sense his intentions, and all she needed was a little faith.

Please cease, She called softly, I do not want to harm these birds, please call them off. If I do anything, they may be accidentally killed and I know neither I nor you would be happy with that. Please, call them off.

She could feel his resistance, but it was weak; he had never felt something like this and that was the only advantage she had. Even if she couldn't stop his feathered friends, with Koda confused, they wouldn't be much of a problem. She was lucky. Both she and Iida saw the wall of birds thin; the birds flew around in a fit of unorganized panic, allowing for them to make it through.

"Go," she said with a smile, "we can make it, but I'll need to ride on your back."

"Fine by me!" Iida picked her up and raced toward the birds. As Koda wasn't giving them directions, their wall faded and the duo made it through with ease. Kirishima was their only obstacle now.

"You won't make it through me!" he grinned, his body already hardened for combat.

Iida understood that whatever Eveline had done was temporary and they needed to make progress in the time she had bought them. He opted for the easiest solution he could; he sped toward the redhead and leaped over him as best as he could. It wasn't perfect, though; Kirishima reached up and narrowly grabbed Iida's foot, slamming the partners down into the ground. Eveline flew off of Iida's back, landing on her side just a few feet from the blue-haired teen.

It was a defeat for Iida and Eveline.

Midoriya felt a strange urge suddenly overcome him, an urge that he wasn't wholly unfamiliar with though he was confused as to why he was feeling it. He wanted to race down to Eveline and check on her, her arm was badly scraped by the fall so he could rationalize that. What struck him as unusual was this bizarre desire to throw Iida against a wall; he had never felt that way toward anyone in his class, which gave him just the slightest bit of anxiety.

"Are you okay?" Midoriya jolted slightly, abruptly turning to see that Uraraka was standing behind him. Her hands were closed into fists that were pressed into her chest while she stared at him with concern.

"I'm fine!" he answered a little too quickly before glancing around, hoping no one else noticed his slight spectacle. "I'm fine. I'm just anxious about my match."

Uraraka didn't seem all that convinced but did offer him the slightest smile as she expressed herself. "You'll be fine, I'm sure."

Midoriya only gifted her with a nervous smile before suddenly deciding to rush off to the starting line. He hoped that he might catch Eveline as she came back up. He knew she was okay, she could heal herself, what he needed was to just hear her say that to him and he'd be fine.

* * *

_**A/N:**_ Hey guys, sorry for the late and short chapter, classes have been giving me some trouble lately. But hey, it's almost Christmas and I hope you guys are all doing well and being safe! I'll have a new chapter ready in December, I promise. In the meantime, I hope you have a great Thanksgiving being it by yourself or with a very small group. See you in December!


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